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| Professional Background | Research Interests | Recent Publications & Presentations
| Teaching | Honors and Awards | Personal Background |
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This homepage is under constructionI received my Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1989. My thesis was based on field research focusing on alcohol production and use among the Haya of northwest Tanzania in summer 1984 and 1985-86. In 1989, I began my postdoctoral career as Project Ethnographer on an AIDS prevention project conducted through the Substance Abuse Intervention Programs, School of Medicine at Wright State University. This study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Harvey A. Siegal, Principal Investigator), was designed to assess HIV seroprevalence and risk behaviors among injection drug users in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio as well as evaluate risk-reduction interventions. The ethnographic research allowed me to further pursue my interests in medical anthropology by examining the injection of mind altering substances and its relationship to HIV transmission. In 1991, I began research on a similar five-year project funded by NIDA, the Cooperative Agreement for AIDS Community-Based Research. By July of 1993, I became a fully affiliated faculty member, Assistant Professor, of the Department of Community Health, School of Medicine at Wright State. I was promoted to Associate Professor in February, 1996. Currently, I am Co-Investigator on a five-year project (1985-2000), "Crack and Health Services Use: A Natural History Approach," funded by NIDA. In 1996, I served as Chair of the AIDS and Anthropology Research Group, an interest group of the Society for Medical Anthropology.
Selected Publications
1998 (in press) Robert G. Carlson, Russel S. Falck, Jichuan Wang, Harvey A. Siegal, and Ahmmed Rahman. HIV Needle Risk Behaviors and Drug Use: A Comparison of Crack-Smoking and Non-Smoking Drug Users in Ohio. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
1998 Harvey A. Siegal, Russel S. Falck, Robert G. Carlson, Jichuan Wang, and Ahmmed Rahman. Health Services Research Among Crack-Cocaine Users: A Case Study From the Midwest. American Behavioral Scientist 41(8):1063-1078.
1997 Robert G. Carlson. Representing and Confronting AIDS: Two Views From Australia. Review article of: Sustaining Safe Sex: Gay Communities Respond to AIDS, by Susan Kippax, R. W. Connell, G. W. Dowsett, and June Crawford (1993) and Moral Threats and Dangerous Desires: AIDS in the News Media, by Deborah Lupton (1994). Reviews in Anthropology 26(4):245-263.
1997 Robert G. Carlson. The Role of Anthropology in Cognitive Science. Review Essay of: Culture in Mind: Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning, by Bradd Shore (1996). American Anthropologist 99(3):631-632.
1997 Russel S. Falck, Jichuan Wang, Robert G. Carlson, and Harvey A. Siegal. Factors Influencing Condom Use Among Heterosexual Users of Injection Drugs and Crack Cocaine. Sexually Transmitted Diseases 24(4):204-210.
1996 Robert G. Carlson. The Political Economy of AIDS among Drug Users in the United States: Beyond Blaming the Victim or Powerful Others. American Anthropologist 98(2):266-278.
1996 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, Jichuan Wang, and Russel S. Falck. Attitudes Toward Needle "Sharing" among Injection Drug Users: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods. Human Organization 55(3):361-369.
1995 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, and Russel S. Falck. Qualitative Research Methods in Drug Abuse and AIDS Prevention Research: An Overview. In Qualitative Research Methods in Drug Abuse and HIV Research. Elizabeth Y. Lambert, Rebecca S. Ashery, and Richard H. Needle, Eds. Pp. 6-26. NIDA Research Monograph 157. NIH Publication No. 95-4025. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1995 Harvey A. Siegal, Robert G. Carlson, Russel S. Falck, and Jichuan Wang. Drug Abuse Treatment Experience and HIV Risk Behaviors among Active Drug Injectors in Ohio. American Journal of Public Health 85(1):105-108.
1994 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, and Russel S. Falck. Ethnography, Epidemiology, and Public Policy: Needle Use Practices and HIV Risk Reduction among Injecting Drug Users in the Midwest. In Global AIDS Policy, Douglas A. Feldman, Ed., Pp 185-214. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
1994 Robert G. Carlson, Jichuan Wang, Harvey A. Siegal, Russel S. Falck and Jie Guo. An Ethnographic Approach to Targeted Sampling: Problems and Solutions in AIDS Prevention Research among Injection Drug and Crack-Cocaine Users. Human Organization 53(3):279-286.
1993 Robert G. Carlson. Hierarchy and the Haya Divine Kingship: A Structural and Symbolic Reformulation of Frazer's Thesis. American Ethnologist 20(2):312-335.
1992 Robert G. Carlson. Symbolic Mediation and Commoditization: A Critical Examination of Alcohol Use among the Haya of Bukoba, Tanzania. Medical Anthropology 15:41-62.
1991 Robert G. Carlson. The Crack Life: An Ethnographic Overview of Crack Use and Sexual Behavior among African Americans in a Midwest Metropolitan City. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 22(4):823-832.
1990 Robert G. Carlson. Banana Beer, Reciprocity, and Ancestor Propitiation among the Haya of Bukoba, Tanzania. Ethnology 29(4):297-311.
Selected Recent Presentations
1998 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, Russel S. Falck, and Jichuan Wang. Crack-Cocaine Injection in the Heartland: An Ethnographic Perspective. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. San Juan, Puerto Rico; April 25.
1998 Robert G. Carlson. Co-Organizer (with Claire Sterk) and Session Chair: Recent Changes in Injection Drug Use and HIV Risk Behaviors. Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. San Juan, Puerto Rico; April 25.
1997 Robert G. Carlson. Session Organizer and Chair: Drug Abuse Treatment: An Anthropological Exploration. Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Seattle, Washington; March 4-9.
1997 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, Russel S. Falck, and Jichuan Wang. From the User's Perspective: Drug Abuse Treatment and Crack Cocaine in the Heartland. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Seattle, Washington; March 4-9.
1996 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, Russel S. Falck, and Jichuan Wang. Exploring the Cultural Logic of Addiction: Drug Abuse Treatment and Engagement in the Midwest. Invited Paper presented at "Treatment Readiness: Factors Influencing Entry and Engagement." National Institute on Drug Abuse; Rockville, Maryland; December 3-4.
1996 Robert G. Carlson. Shooting Galleries, Dope Houses, and "Doctors": Exploring the Rationale and Contexts of Needle Transfer among Injection Drug Users in the Midwest. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Baltimore, Maryland; March 27-31.
1995 Robert G. Carlson, Jichuan Wang, Harvey A. Siegal, and Russel S. Falck. Needle-Cleaning Practices among Injection Drug Users: Assessing an Improved Bleach Intervention at Six-Month Follow-Up. Presented at the Third Science Symposium--HIV Prevention: Current Status and Future Directions, Flagstaff, Arizona; August 16-18.
1995 Robert G. Carlson. Medical Anthropology and the Health Sciences: Future Prospects and Challenges. Invited paper presented for the Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University--SUNY; July 18.
1995 Robert G. Carlson. Symbols and Semantics: 'Boy,' 'Girl' and the Construction of Gender Relations among Injection Drug Users. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque, New Mexico; March 29-April 2.
1994 Robert G. Carlson. Reducing HIV Transmission among Illegal Drug Users: An Evaluation of Anthropological Contributions. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Atlanta, Georgia; November 30- December 4.
1994 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, Jichuan Wang, and Russel S. Falck. Attitudes Toward Needle "Sharing" among Injection Drug Users: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods. Presented at the Second Science Symposium on Drugs, Sex, AIDS: Prevention Research 1995-2000. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona; August 31-September 2.
1994 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, and Russel S. Falck. Qualitative Research Methods in Drug Abuse and AIDS Prevention Research: An Overview. Presented at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Technical Review: Qualitative Methods in Drug Abuse and HIV Research. Washington, D.C.; July 19-20.
Funds for my research have been awarded from Fulbright Hays, The National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the World AIDS Foundation. In 1994, I was awarded the AIDS and Anthropology Research Group Annual Paper Award for:
1994 Robert G. Carlson, Harvey A. Siegal, and Russel S. Falck. Ethnography, Epidemiology, and Public Policy: Needle Use Practices and HIV Risk Reduction among Injecting Drug Users in the Midwest. In Global AIDS Policy, Douglas A. Feldman, Ed., Pp 185-214. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
I was the recipient of the Steven Polgar Annual Award for post-graduate "state-of-the-art excellence in Medical Anthropology" in 1996. Awarded by the Society for Medical Anthropology at the 95th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, California for:Carlson, Robert G. The Political Economy of AIDS among Drug Users in the United States: Beyond Blaming the Victim or Powerful Others. American Anthropologist 98(2):266-278, 1996.
Patrice and I met at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1973. We have been together since 1974, doing falconry and fieldwork (among other things) on Alcoholics Anonymous in Rock Island, Illinois (1980-1981) and in Bukoba, Tanzania, among the Haya (1985-1986). In 1988, we welcomed our son, James Emmanuel Kyaruzi, into the world. He is named after a previous king of Kyamtwara and one of our Haya friends. A professional writer, Patrice is working on a book about our experiences in East Africa and is author of numerous articles in the Beavercreek News Current newspaper. Some images of our experiences follow.
Patrice and Robert with Ragnar, 1975.
Fieldwork in Bukoba, Tanzania, summer 1984.
Fieldwork in Dayton, Ohio. 1997. (Robert and Rickie Foster, Outreach Worker II)
Robert, Jim, and Patrice. Grand Canyon, 1993
Jim and Patrice. Gunnison, Colorado, 1996.
Jim showing the day's catch of rainbow trout
Jim after leading an all-day trek through El Yunque Rain Forest, Puerto Rico. April 1998
