In the presentation the author will describe his experience of research in the field of medical anthropology on the topics of body, illness narratives, care processes and patients emotions and agency with reference to his fieldwork in the South of Italy (Campania Region) about young people affected by Type I Diabetes Mellitus, as an autoimmune and chronic disease, in follow-up within a ward dedicated to diabetes care in the Department of Pediatrics of an university hospital in Naples. Italian and international contemporary medical anthropology with a specific focus on body and gender constitutes the theoretical and methodological framework of reference with respect to the research experience presented.

Medical anthropology, illness narratives and care processes: notes from fieldwork in Italy

Eugenio Zito

In the presentation the author will describe his experience of research in the field of medical anthropology on the topics of body, illness narratives, care processes and patients emotions and agency with reference to his fieldwork in the South of Italy (Campania Region) about young people affected by Type I Diabetes Mellitus, as an autoimmune and chronic disease, in follow-up within a ward dedicated to diabetes care in the Department of Pediatrics of an university hospital in Naples. Italian and international contemporary medical anthropology with a specific focus on body and gender constitutes the theoretical and methodological framework of reference with respect to the research experience presented.

Nota Biográfica

Eugenio Zito, Ph.D. in Gender Studies, obtained the National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology in 2018. He is Assistant Professor and Researcher of Cultural Anthropology at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy where he teaches Ethnology and Anthropology of Communication in the degrees courses and Medical Anthropology in the two socio-sanitary Masters (I and II level) active in the Department. He is also Adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Naples Federico II where he teaches Medical Anthropology and Past Visiting Professor at the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia in Mexico City, Mexico, at the Centre Marocain des Sciences Sociales (CM2S), Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines-Aïn Chok, Universitè Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco, and at Département de Sociologie, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université Cadi Ayyad (UCAM), Marrakech, Morocco.

He is full member of the “European Association of Social Anthropologists”, of the “Società Italiana di Antropologia Culturale”, and of the “Società Italiana di Antropologia Medica”. He is member of the editorial boards of the A-band journals “EtnoAntropologia” and “Narrare i Gruppi. Etnografia dell’interazione quotidiana” and co-editor of “La camera blu. Journal of Gender Studies”.

He is interested in body, social vulnerability, gender identity and chronic/infectious diseases in clinical settings and gender issues in socio-cultural contexts in the perspective of cultural, social and medical anthropology.

On these subjects he has researched on the field in the South of Italy (Campania Region) and in the North of Ethiopia (State of Tigray) and published essays and articles.

On the following links of the University of Naples Federico II and of Google Scholar you can find a list of my principal publications: https://www.iris.unina.it/cris/rp/rp11421?sort_byall=2&orderall=DESC&open=all#all

https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=i4XUb0MAAAAJ&hl=it