Angela Jenks

Angela Jenks is an Assistant Teaching Professor (LPSOE) in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and director of the M.A. in Medicine, Science, and Technology Studies (MA in MSTS) program. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco. Her research and teaching interests are focused on health inequity and the social and cultural dynamics of American biomedicine. Dr. Jenks is currently working on a book project entitled The Problem We All Live With: Cultural Competence and the Medical Management of Difference. This work explores the way anthropological notions of culture, race, and difference are invoked in the development of “cultural competence” efforts in four intersecting areas of the health system: health disparities research, medical education, managed care, and ethnically-specialized clinics. Dr. Jenks teaches a variety of courses related to medical anthropology, including Anthropology of the Body; Anthropology of Biomedicine and Biotechnology; Disease, Health, and Inequality; and Race, Gender, and Science. She is currently also teaching in the UC Irvine Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC).

This PECE essay helps to answer the STS Across Borders analytic question: “What people, projects, and products exemplify how this STS formation has developed over time?”

This essay is part of a broader exhibit on UCI Anthro STS.