In this talk, Dr. Mason will examine the reinvention of the Chinese public health system that took place following the SARS epidemic of 2003, and the implications of this transformation both for the health of China's population and for global health and public health systems more broadly.

Katherine A. Mason is a medical anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in China and the U.S. Her research addresses issues in medical anthropology, population health, global health, bioethics, China studies, reproductive health, and mental health. Her first book, "Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health after an Epidemic," based on fieldwork she conducted in southeastern China on the professionalization and ethics of public health in China following the 2003 SARS epidemic, was published by Stanford University Press in 2016. She is currently working on a multi-sited ethnographic field project that examines family experiences of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in the U.S. and China. She is also a core consultant on the AmeRicans’ Conceptions of Health Equity Study (ARCHES), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Mason is affiliated with Brown's Population Studies and Training Center, and the Program in Science and Technology Studies, and she has served as an adviser in the Engaged Scholars Program. Her research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Fulbright program, and Association for Asian Studies. She has previously held positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar (2013-2015) and a Lecturer in the Health and Societies program at the University of Pennsylvania (2011-2013). She received her PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 2011.