Merrill Singer

University of Connecticut, Anthropology, Faculty Member

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Research areas:

1) Substance abuse and HIV/AIDS
2) Political economy of health
3) Syndemics
4) Environmental health (global warming and ecocrises)
5) Health disparities

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Books by Merrill Singer

Introduction to Syndemics: A Systems Approach to Public Health and Community Health

Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health: Emerging Crises and Systemic Solutions

Drugs and Development: Global Impact on Sustainable Growth and Human Rights.

Killer Commodities: Public Health and the Corporate Production of Harm

Introducing Medical Anthropology: A Discipline in Action

Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drug Industries and the Structuring of Social Inequality.

The Face of Social Suffering: Life History of a Street Drug Addict.

Something Dangerous: Emergent and Changing Illicit Drug Use and Community Health.

Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination

Medical Anthropology and the World System.

Hans Baer, Merrill Singer and Ida Susser. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Co., 2003 (2nd Ed.)

The War Machine and Global Health

Papers by Merrill Singer

A Multistate Trial of Pharmacy Syringe Purchase

Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2004

Pharmacies are a potential site for access to sterile syringes as a means for preventing human im... more Pharmacies are a potential site for access to sterile syringes as a means for preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but the type and extent of their utility is uncertain. To examine pharmacy syringe purchase, we conducted a standardized, multistate study in urban and rural areas of four states in which attempts to purchase syringes were documented. Of 1,600 overall purchase attempts, 35% were refused. Colorado (25%) and Connecticut (28%) had significantly lower rates of refusal than Kentucky (41%) and Missouri (47%). Furthermore, urban settings had higher rates of refusal (40%) than rural settings (31%, P < .01). Race and gender did not have a consistent impact on rates of refusal. Despite potential advantages of pharmacies as sites for access to sterile syringes, pharmacy purchase of syringes faces significant obstacles in terms of the practices in different jurisdictions.

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Getting the Message Straight

To redress gaps in injection drug users&#x27;(IDUs) knowledge about hepatitis risk and preven... more

The social geography of AIDS and hepatitis risk: qualitative approaches for assessing local differences in sterile-syringe access among injection drug users

American Journal of Public Health, 2000

While significant gains have been achieved in understanding and reducing AIDS and hepatitis risks... more While significant gains have been achieved in understanding and reducing AIDS and hepatitis risks among injection drug users (IDUs), it is necessary to move beyond individual-level characteristics to gain a fuller understanding of the impact of social context on risk. In this study, 6 qualitative methods were used in combination with more traditional epidemiologic survey approaches and laboratory bioassay procedures to examine neighborhood differences in access to sterile syringes among IDUs in 3 northeastern cities. These methods consisted of (1) neighborhood-based IDU focus groups to construct social maps of local equipment acquisition and drug use sites; (2) ethnographic descriptions of target neighborhoods; (3) IDU diary keeping on drug use and injection equipment acquisition; (4) ethnographic day visits with IDUs in natural settings; (5) interviews with IDUs about syringe acquisition and collection of syringes for laboratory analysis; and (6) focused field observation and proce...

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AIDS prevention for African-American and Latina women: building culturally and gender-appropriate intervention

PubMed, Jun 1, 1995

African-American and Latino women are at high risk of HIV infection through heterosexual transmis... more African-American and Latino women are at high risk of HIV infection through heterosexual transmission, reflected in the significant increases in reported AIDS cases of women thus infected. Few AIDS-prevention programs have addressed this risk for women by directly, separately and, in appropriate ways, focusing on specific women's issues of gender roles, sexuality, and differential power relationships with men, in the context of racial and class relations, as these affect HIV transmission. This article discusses the contributions of a community-based AIDS-prevention program to the development of culturally and gender-appropriate intervention for African-American and Latina women at high risk. Further such programs are needed which build on the use of ethnic cultural concepts, racial and other social relations, and acknowledge issues specific to minority women in order to prevent their infection with HIV.

Dust in the Wind: The Growing Use of Embalming Fluid Among Youth in Hartford, CT

Substance Use & Misuse, 2005

This study suggests that use of embalming fluid as a mind-altering drug has been underreported. B... more This study suggests that use of embalming fluid as a mind-altering drug has been underreported. Based on a social network recruitment strategy, findings from a study in 2000 of 401 outreach worker-recruited polydrug-involved youth (ages 16-24 years) from the inner city of Hartford, CT indicate widespread (over 80% of study participants had used the drug at least once) and regular use of embalming fluid mixed with either marijuana or mint. This paper reports findings on frequency and distribution of use, experience, and consequences of use, access to the drug, and characteristics of embalming fluid users. Given the toxic substances that comprise embalming fluid, and the tendency, affirmed in the present study, of the drug to be associated with violent behavior, there is a need to recognize embalming fluid as a drug of concern among youth.

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Anthropology and Culturally Targeted AIDS Prevention

Practicing anthropology, Sep 1, 1993

As various ethnic and culturally diverse communities respond to the threat of AIDS, anthropologic... more As various ethnic and culturally diverse communities respond to the threat of AIDS, anthropological approaches are useful for contextualizing the social conditions associated with the spread of HIV and for developing culturally and socially targeted means to reduce infection, disease, and death. Through analysis of social and economic relations, beliefs and value systems, and other expressions of group interaction and cultural meaning, programs can be constructed to respond to the disease in its social and cultural context. An example of this process can be seen in Project COPE, a community-based AIDS prevention project that targets injection drug users (IDUs) and their sex partners in Hartford, Connecticut. The following discussion illustrates some of the ways anthropological analysis and research techniques were used to shape and evaluate the project's design, risk reduction methodology, and implementation procedures.

Methodological Challenges in Club Drug Research

Practicing anthropology, Jul 1, 2003

HHC she has worked as an ethnographer and performed qualitative analysis on the Syringe Access, U... more

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Researcher Roles and Research Partnerships

ETHNOGRAPHER'S TOOLKIT Edited by Jean J. Schensul, Institute for Community Research, Hartfor... more

Drogas y VIH-SIDA en el Barrio

La siguiente etnografia visual aborda la cotidianeidad marginal-radical que enfrentan los drogo-d... more La siguiente etnografia visual aborda la cotidianeidad marginal-radical que enfrentan los drogo-dependientes puertorriquenos en Hartford, CT, y las barreras socio-culturales, politicas, legales, y economicas que albergan y refuerzan sus riesgos potencialmente incurrentes en el VIH/SIDA. La informacion que aqui se presenta, de caracter cuantitativa y cualitativa, proviene del estudio Syringe Access, Use, and Discard: Context in AIDS Risk conducido por el Hispanic Health Council, en colaboracion con las escuelas de Salud Publica de la Universidad de Yale y de la Universidad de Massachussets, y financiado por el National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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