Announcements
Upcoming in 2023
Dr. Myers and lab members Nusaiba Chowdhury, Mihiret Mesganaw, Halle Tarvin, and Yang Liu will travel to San Diego, CA in late April to present our research at the Society for Psychological Anthropology Conference joint with the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture from April 27-30.
Dr. Myers, Justin Wilkey, and Claire Janssen will travel to Lausanne, Switzerland to present the lab’s research on substance use and early psychosis at the International Early Intervention in Mental Health conference from July 10-12.
2023
March
Dr. Myers, along with several SMU students and colleagues from around the US, published a systematic review of published research about early psychosis care for Black and Latino Youth in the US. You can view the press release here. Recommendations are made for future research noting the gaps in the literature, as well as policy interventions that reduce the role of police in mental health crisis support.
February
Dr. Myers visited Stanford Center for the Humanities to give an invited lecture, Of Gods and Supheroes: Madness, Moral Agency, and Belonging for Youth. Stanford University Medical Humanities Seminar. February 15, 2023, Stanford University, CA. Follow the link to view the recording!
Dr. Myers visited UCLA to give two lectures in Anthropology at the Mind, Medicine and Culture seminar, as well as Grand Rounds in Psychiatry. You can view the Psychiatry lecture here! Why Young People Use and Refuse Care: Moral Agency and Engagement for Youth with Early Psychosis. Semel Institute Psychiatry Grand Rounds. University of California at Los Angeles. February 28, 2023.
January
Dr. Myers’ is a guest on the Neuroethics Society Today Apple Podcast, Community-Centered Social Justice. Recorded August 2022, released January 2023.
2022
November
Dr. Myers’ participated in two roundtables–one sponsored by the Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group, “The Para-Professionalization of Lived Experience: Peer Support in Public and Private Mental Health” and the other by the Political and Legal Anthropology section titled: “Unsettling the Health and Safety Landscapes of Crisis Response Programs in the US.”
September
Dr. Myers’ paper on the ecosocial self, place, and well-being with Maasai women from Northern Tanzania is published in Social Science and Medicine-Mental Health.
August
Dr. Myers, Elizabeth Lesetei Mollel, Luca Pauselli, Marne Chacon, and Michael Compton’s paper on Maasai women hearing voices is published in Transcultural Psychiatry.
July
Dr. Myers will begin a new position as Editor-in-Chief of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry.
May
Dr. Myers continued ethnographic fieldwork on Wilderness Rites of Passage in the Anza-Borrego Desert.
Nusaiba Chowdhury awarded a Humanities without Walls Fellowship.
April
Claire Janssen is awarded a Summer Hamilton Scholar Research Award to work in the Mental Health Equity Lab.
Dr. Myers, Matthew Hutnyan, Justin Wilkey, and Gillian Wright’s paper on homelessness and jail diversion is published with Psychiatric Services.
Matthew Hutnyan announces he will be attending UT-Southwestern to begin a PhD program in Clinical Psychology this Fall.
2021
November
As part of the 2021 International Neuroethics Society Annual Meeting on November 4-5, Dr. Myers will be a panelist to discuss “Equity in Global Mental Health Care.”
Dr. Myers will be a roundtable presenter for “Critical Tensions in Care for Psychosis” at the American Anthropological Association Conference, November 17-21.
In November, Dr. Myers will be a panelist for “Contested Truths Over COVID-19 in Africa, Kin Networks and COVID-19 among the Maasai” at the African Studies Association Conference.
October
Dr. Myers will be part of the webinar, “The Importance of Moral Agency for the Engagement Strategies of Homeless Outreach Teams” for the LA County Department of Mental Health.
September
As an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dr. Myers will be joining Dr. Adam Brenner, M.D., on September 1 for the inaugural seminar “Culture Mind and Brain.” Its purpose is to inspire conversation between anthropology and psychiatry and deepen research, clinical work, and service in both fields.
June
Dr. Myers was invited guest faculty for McGill University Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Advanced Study Institute in Cultural Psychiatry, Culture and Psychosis: New Insights and Challenges, June 14-19. 2021, Montreal, Quebec.
May
Congratulations to our graduating senior—Matthew Hutnyan! He will be staying on as the Director of the Mental Health Equity Lab.
April
Dr. Myers led a double panel of researchers presenting about her work and the work of others on moral agency and mental health at the Society for Psychological Anthropology conference. Nusaiba Chowdhury also presents her research at the conference about her work on mental health for Muslim refugees in Dallas.
Nusaiba Chowdhury receives the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship for her work with the International Refugee Commission in Dallas.
Matthew Hutnyan receives an award for being the top, “Outstanding Senior” in Health and Society.
Dr. Myers presents to an Anthropology class at Sarah Lawrence College. The focus will be on her book Recovery’s Edge.
March
Magnifique Neza, a visiting scholar of medical anthropology from L’Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales joins the Mental Health Equity Lab to work on writing up her dissertation about trauma and the Rwandan genocide.
Dr. Myers speaks with Dallas Morning News reporter Nic Garcia for his article A year without: How Texas survived the challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic.
February
Dr. Myers gives a talk to University College London’s Department of Anthropology about her work on early psychosis. She also presents to a class at Columbia University’s Sociomedical Sciences, which focuses on her book Recovery’s Edge.
2020
December
To continue working on projects with the Public Mental Health Partnership at UCLA and the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), Dr. Myer’s lab receives further funding in partnership with Beth Bromley from the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine. The focus is exploring innovative approaches to chronic homelessness in Texas.
Justin Wilkey receives further funding as a Hamilton Scholar.
Dr. Myers presents the talk Moral Agency and Treatment Decision-Making Young People With Early Psychosis to the Board of Directors at Metrocare Dallas to educate them about some of the challenges facing young people of diverse backgrounds experiencing a mental health crisis.
October
Dr. Myers gives a talk to University of Texas-Southwestern Department of Psychiatry as part of their Grand Rounds series.
Emily Stein joins the lab team as a volunteer.
September
Dr. Myers receives an award to work in partnership with Molly Lopez from UT-Austin to explore the challenges faced by young people who use and abuse substances and also experience symptoms of early psychosis with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Myers presents to the McGill University Department of Transcultural Psychiatry about her work on early psychosis in Texas as part of their Psychic Life Series.
August
Justin Wilkey is awarded a Hamilton Undergraduate Research Fellowship to work in Dr. Myer’s lab in Fall 2020.
May
Nusaiba Chowdhury receives a Maguire Center Public Service Fellowship to work at International Rescue Committee in Dallas with refugees.
March
Marne Chacon receives a University Ph.D. Fellowship from Southern Methodist University to work as a student for Dr. Myers pursuing her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology.