Heather A. Howard (Bobiwash)

Heather A. Howard (Bobiwash) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching link social justice, indigenous peoples’ issues and medical anthropology. She enjoys mentoring students on capstone projects. She teaches ANP 370 “Culture, Health, and Illness” with a health and social justice orientation as well as ANP 435 “Indigenous Peoples’ Health.”

DR. HOWARD’s research interests in health issues were initiated in relation to her broader long-term research since 1995 with Native people in Toronto, which examines the history and politics of “community production” within the mobilization and delineation of indigeneity, culture, tradition and identity in social service delivery and national organizing around urban Native issues. Her current research examines transformations in healthcare knowledge and practice in a variety of healthcare settings. She continues her research with the Toronto Native community on approaches to type 2 diabetes, and has developed new research on health reform policy and knowledge translation in clinical practice, arts and health, and environmental health. Her ongoing research with the Toronto Native community situates community-based programs in relation to the complex history of Toronto Native social service delivery, to shifting structures of culture and power, and to the interface with biomedical research and care delivery, including more recent collaborative models which promote the value of Indigenous knowledge frameworks to scholarship and research which is meaningful to the community.Dr. Howard has also conducted research on the intersection of class, gender, and culture in Native women’s work and activism experience, as well as legal and policy issues, land and resource rights and use, and community history for tribal governments in the United States. She has collaborated on international interdisciplinary projects investigating Indigenous women’s health and inequality, as well as the legal and ethical implications of genetic markets, property rights, and Indigenous peoples. Dr. Howard also holds a research faculty appointment with the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives at the University of Toronto.Current and Recently Funded Research:2013-2016: “Genomics in the Clinic: Identity, Responsibility and Choice,” co-PI (with L. M. Hunt, Anthropology, MSU) National Institutes of Health2013-2017: “Our Health Counts Toronto: Developing A Population-Based Urban Aboriginal Cohort to Assess and Enhance Individual, Family and Community Health and Well-being,” co-I (Janet Smylie, (PI) St. Michael’s Hospital Centre for Research on Inner-City Health, Toronto) Canadian Institutes for Health Research2013-2015: “Memory, Meaning-Making and Collections,” co-PI (with C. Krmpotich and L. Howarth (Faculty of Information, University of Toronto) and Native Canadian Centre of Toronto) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Development2012-2013: “Comparative Effectiveness of Primary Care Practice Transformation by Two Insurers,” co-I (with R. Malouin, Department of Family Medicine, MSU) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality2012-2013: “Sharing Transformations in Diabetes,” PI, Canadian Institutes for Health Research2012-2013: “Understanding Primary Care Transformation in the Niagara Region of Ontario from the Perspective of Practices and Programs,” co-PI (with R. Malouin (Department of Family Medicine, MSU) Canadian Embassy Faculty Research Grant Program 2010-2011: “Transformations in Diabetes Prevention Education and Support Initiatives by and for Aboriginal People in Toronto,” PI, Indigenous Health Research Development Program, Network Environments for Aboriginal Health Research, Canadian Institutes for Health Research2011: “Urban Aboriginal Diabetes Research Project,” co-PI (with L. Lavallee (Ryerson University) and Anishnawbe Health Toronto) Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network