Sarah Willen

Director, Research Program on Global Health and Human Rights

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Primary Research Theme

Healthy Cities

Secondary Research Themes

Governance and Urban Services, Social-Ecological Systems

Recent Cities-related Projects

  • ARCHES | the AmeRicans’ Conceptions of Health Equity Study: ARCHES explores how Americans think about what’s needed to flourish and be healthy; how the resources needed for health and flourishing might be fairly apportioned; and how perspectives on these issues can change. In Phase I, we partnered with a regional health equity initiative in Greater Cleveland, Ohio, and interviewed 1) key decision-makers, 2) health practitioners, 3) community leaders, and 4) community residents (n=170). These interviews, combined with long-term ethnographic fieldwork with our local partners, is helping us explore how an urban community coalition puts an equity agenda into practice. In Phase II, we will build on these findings by conducting a survey with a national, probabilistic sample using experiments that explore how Americans from diverse backgrounds think about health, flourishing, and fairness as well as society’s obligations in circumstances of inequity. We are committed to sharing findings with our local partners in Cleveland, Ohio, and reporting/publishing with them, as relevant and appropriate.

Selected Urban-Related Publications

Willen S. (2015). Invited comment on Trash Talk: Interpreting Morality and Disorder in Negev/Naqab Landscapes by Emily McKee. Current Anthropology.

Willen S., Kohler A. (2015). Cultural Competence and Its Discontents: Reflections on a Mandatory Course for Psychiatry Residents. Left Coast Press.

Willen S. (2015). Lighting Rods and Local Moral Economies: Debating Unauthorized Migrants’ Deservingness in Israel. International Migration.

Fleischman Y., Willen S.S., Davidovitch N., Mor Z. (2015). Migration as a social determinant of health for irregular migrants: Israel as case study. Social Science and Medicine.