Mediating alterity: Transitive Indianness in U.S. non-normative medicine

Non-normative medicine is a phenomenon that arises in response to the shortcomings of normative medicine. Gendered racialized representations have been central to defining what constitutes appropriate U.S. non-normative medicine. Subsequently, constructions of non-normative medicine have reified what formations of alterity constitute appropriate non-normativity. This dissertation interrogates the mediation of non-normative medicine through indigenous alterity with respect to gender and racialization, specifically at the National Institutes of Health that, since 1992, has housed the Office of Alternative Medicine (now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health). Focusing on the strategic deployment of gendered Indianness and subsequently latinidad, “Mediating Alterity” builds on theories of transits, boundaries, expectation and anomaly, as well as hybridity and mestizaje to consider inclusion, commodification, and multiculturalism in the context of U.S. institutional non-normative medicine. It examines the vitality of indigeneity to modes of inquiry in medical humanities and social sciences to interpret the establishment of the Office as dependent on Indianness. It analyzes the media coverage of founding director Dr. Joseph Jacobs (Mohawk), which inevitably labeled him “the Medicine Man” in Washington, as well as the Office-cum-Center website’s visual representation of hybridized mestiza Latinas departing from primitively indigenized past traditions, becoming complementary to normative medicine, and integrated into neoliberal biomedical citizenship. Critical indigenous, gender, race, and ethnic cultural studies of medicine, science, and technology thus constitute the framework necessary to interrogate the intricacies of patriarchal racialization and settler colonialism in U.S. medicine. Throughout, the dissertation maintains a commitment to ensuring inclusive medical initiatives address the politics of alterity holistically and in accordance with decolonization.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Chenyek, Rico Kleinstein

Contributors dc:contributor

• Valdivia, Angharad
• Molina-Guzmán, Isabel
• Chan, Anita Say
• Treichler, Paula
• Byrd, Jodi

• non-normativity
• alternative medicine
• indigeneity
• Indianness
• multiculturalism
• institutionalization
• latinidad
• feminization
• settler colonialism
• racialization

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Rico Kleinstein Chenyek

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101793

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101793