Abigail Adams attended the eighty-sixth annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and participated in a two-session memorial panel to honor the late visionary applied anthropologist Victor Garcia.
Garcia was a Distinguished University Professor at IUP, and he served the field of anthropology and the Latino community of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, for over 30 years.
Adams’ paper, titled “No Andaba Muerto, Andaba de Parranda: IUP’s Global Health Program and the Legacy of Victor Garcia” (translation: I’m not dead, I’m just out partying”), highlighted one of the many legacies of Garcia as IUP’s global health program prepares students by developing critical competencies and ethical awareness. Garcia left IUP with a global health program that equips students with the practical and ethical tools to work effectively in local and global healthcare settings.
Because global health critically examines the ways in which Western medical techniques and attitudes toward health are disseminated throughout the world, and the tensions generated in local cultures by this globalization of health, it provides IUP students with the opportunity to engage diverse cultural systems and to be exposed to different models and delivery systems for providing healthcare.
Friends, colleagues, and students of Victor Garcia gathered at the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference to honor his legacy.