SMU Ph.D student receives prestigious Fulbright-Hays grant for anthropology research in Brazil

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU anthropology Ph.D. candidate Kerri Brown recently received a Fulbright-Hays international education fellowship to support 18 months of research in Brazil.  Brown leaves for Rio de Janeiro in January to continue work on her dissertation about public policy related to traditional medicinal plants in Brazil.

Kerri Brown

In Brazil, home to nearly one-fourth of the world's plant species, many groups within the country have long relied on medicinal plants for basic health care. Pharmaceutical companies also use South American plants to create medications such as quinine for malaria and beta blockers for cardiovascular disease. But local  groups’ knowledge of the natural world and pharmaceutical companies' desire to better understand and export untapped resources has created a conflict resulting in international regulation, Brown says.

"I am interested in how international policy affects various communities’ uses of medicinal plants," Brown says. "The regulation of medicinal plants is often a point of conversation for larger issues in Latin America, such as deforestation, biopiracy and the rights of marginalized people."

Brown first became interested in Brazil as an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin. A psychology and anthropology major, she studied abroad in Rio de Janeiro and volunteered at Criola, an organization that seeks to empower Afro-Brazilian girls and women to become agents of change. At Criola she became interested in women's access to health care and use of traditional medicine.

As part of her fellowship, Brown will spend nine months in Rio de Janeiro and then travel to Oriximiná, a small town in the Amazon, to continue her research.

"The Fulbright-Hays fellowship will give me so much flexibility," Brown says. "It will enable me to travel, attend regional conferences and meet with other researchers in Brazil."

The U.S. Department of Education recently awarded $4.4 million in Fulbright-Hays grants aimed at increasing understanding between the United States and the rest of the world. Brown is one of 86 scholars nationwide to receive funding through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad project.

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