Elizabeth Turk
Research Interest
Research Sub-interest
Medical Anthropology, Political Economy, Postsocialism, Medical Colonialism, Nationalism, Ritual, Shamanism, Buddhist Medicine, Cosmology and Landscape, Political Ecology
Regions
Inner Asia; Mongolia
Biography
Dr. Turk’s research focuses on nature-based and "alternative" medicine in contemporary Mongolia, exploring themes in both medical and environmental anthropology. She first began research in Mongolia in 2010 as a Fulbright scholar exploring shamanic healing practices, specifically the connection between spiritual illness and the impending mining boom. Research interests since then have shifted towards a practice-focused approach to the study of healing, historicizing such practices as they have and continue to relate to political economy. Dr. Turk is in the processes of preparing her first manuscript which explores the articulation of healing practices with nationalist and social progressivist discourses.
Education
University of Cambridge, PhD in Social Anthropology, 2017
Columbia University, MA in Sociocultural Anthropology, 2013
University of Michigan, BSc in Women's Studies and General Studies, 2007
In press. "The Politics of Ritual Form(ation) in Contemporary Mongolia." Social Analysis 63, no. 3.
2018. "Toxic Care (?): Scepticism and Treatment Failure in Post-Soviet Mongolia." Inner Asia 20, no. 2: 219–241.