Alejandro Ceron

Associate Professor, Cultural Anthropology; Chair, Anthropology

Faculty
Anthropology
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (in)Equality
Center for Immigration Policy & Research (CIPR)

alejandro.ceronvaldes@du.edu

303-871-2088 (Office)

https://liberalarts.du.edu/about/people/alejandro-ceron

Personal

Sturm Hall, 2000 East Asbury Avenue Denver, CO 80208

What I do

I am committed to the collective imagining of a society with no exclusion and to working toward its realization through the combination of applied work in anthropology and public health.

Specialization(s)

health, Human Rights, ethnographic research

Professional Biography

Alejandro Cerón is a researcher interested in the social and cultural aspects of health in Guatemala and Central America. Through his work he pays particular attention to the link between public health practice and health as a human right from the perspective of sociocultural epidemiology. He received a medical degree in 2000 and a master in public health in 2006 (both from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala), as well as a doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Washington in 2013. Between 2001 and 2006, he worked in rural Guatemala as a physician and primary health project coordinator. He is Associate Professor in the Anthropology department at the University of Denver. He maintains professional collaborations in Guatemala with the Instituto de Salud Incluyente (ISIS), the Centro de Estudios para la Equidad y Gobernanza en los Sistemas de Salud (CEGSS), the Fundación para el Niño Enfermo Renal (FUNDANIER), and the Red de Acceso a Medicamentos en Guatemala (RedAM-Guate).

Degree(s)

Ph.D., Sociocultural Anthropology, University of Washington, 2013
MA, Sociocultural Anthropology, University of Washington, 2009
MPH (Master in Public Health), Epidemiology, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 2006
MD, Medicine, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 2000

Professional Affiliations

American Anthropological Association
Society for Applied Anthropology
Colegio de Médicos de Guatemala

Research

My overall research goals are to understand the relationship between public health and the right to health, in theory and in practice, through collaborative projects that utilize qualitative and quantitative research methods. I am also interested in developing collaborative research projects that utilize ethnographic research tools in creative ways.

Areas of Research

sociocultural anthropology

medical anthropology

applied anthropology

Human Rights

research methods in anthropology

public health

health systems

ethnographic research

health and environment

Featured Publications

Ceron Valdes, M. (2023). Environmental and Social Factors Associated with High Chronic Kidney Disease Mortality Rates in Municipalities of Guatemala: An Ecological Study of Municipal-Level Mortality Data. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(8), 5532. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20085532

Ceron Valdes, M. (2020). Practices, Knowledge, and the Next Pandemic: A Lesson from a Failed Participatory Public Health Intervention. Retrieved from http://somatosphere.net/2020/covid19-publichealth.html/

Ceron Valdes, M., Ramay, B. M., Méndez-Alburez, L. P., & Lou-Meda, R. (2021). Factors Associated to Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-Traditional Cause Among Children in Guatemala. Pan American Journal of Public Health, 45, e24. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.24

Kinyon, K., Ceron, A., & Dinko, D. H. (2022). "The University of Denver Ethnography Lab: Fostering a WAC Community of Practice". Proceedings for the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference 2020/2021.. Proceedings for the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference 2020/2021.

McCormack, P., Johns, Z., Neiss, K., Kinyon, K., & Ceron, A. (2021). Building Community Through Ethnography in Action to Catalyze Student, Faculty, and Community Collaborations. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 45(2), 193-206. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/napa.12168

Ceron, A. (2018). Epidemiología neocolonial: Prácticas de salud pública y derecho a la salud en Guatemala. [Neo-colonial epidemiology: Public health practice and the right to health in Guatemala.] (p. 174). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Asociacion para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales [Society for the Advancement of Social Sciences]. Serie Autores Invitados No. 28 [Invited Authors Series, #28.] .

Ceron Valdes, M. (2019). Neo-Colonial Epidemiology: Public health practice and the right to health in Guatemala. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 6(1), 30-54. Retrieved from http://www.medanthrotheory.org/read/11196/neocolonial-epidemiology

Ceron Valdes, M., Ruano, A., Silvia, S., Chew, A., Díaz, D., Hernandez, A., & Flores, W. (2016). Abuse and discrimination towards indigenous people in public health care facilities: experiences from rural Guatemala. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(77). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27177690

Ceron Valdes, M., Ortiz, M. R., Alvarez, D., Cordon-Rosales, C., & Palmer, G. (2016). Local disease concepts relevant to the design of a community-based surveillance program for influenza in rural Guatemala. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(69). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27108224

Ceron Valdes, M. (2010). Los caminos del enfermo en una comunidad K'iche' de Guatemala: una contribución del análisis de redes al estudio de los comportamientos de búsqueda de atención en salud. REDES: Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales, 18(2), 14-46. Retrieved from http://revistes.uab.cat/redes/article/view/387

Presentations

Ceron Valdes, M. (2024). "W ater contamination and the right to a healthy environment in a neocolonial enclave: a case study from Southwest Guatemala ". Annual Meeting. Santa Fe, NM: Society for Applied Anthropology.

Ceron Valdes, M. (2024). " Retos para el Abordaje del Nexo entre Medio Ambiente e Inequidades en Salud: Comentarios a 'La Construcción de Salutogénesis frente a la Complejidad Ecológica de CARD '" [ Challenges for addressing the nexus between environment and health inequities: Comments to Building Salutogenesis] . La Construcción de Salutogénesis frente a la Complejidad Ecológica de Centroamérica y República Dominicana [Building Salutogenesis to face ecological complexity in Central America and Dominican Republic]. Guatemala City: Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Naturales y Tecnología ( IARNA ) , Universidad Rafael Landívar.

Ceron Valdes, M. (2023). " Collective Embodiments and the rise of Chronic Kidney Disease of non-Traditional Causes in Guatemala ". American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Toronto, Ontario: American Anthropological Association.

Neiss, K., Ceron Valdes, M., Tanori, B., & Rodriguez, A. (2023). "Essential Voices: Creating a Story Archive to Resist Invisibilization.". Conference on Community Writing "Activating Radical Imagination." . Denver, CO: Coalition for Community Writing.

Ceron Valdes, M. (2023). " Decolonizing Epidemiology: who, what, when, where, why? " . Department of Health & Behavioral Sciences , Colloquium. . Denver, CO: University of Colorado Denver .

Ceron Valdes, M. (2023). " El acceso a los medicamentos como componente del derecho a la salud. " [Access to medicines as a component of the right to health.] Course "Propiedad Intelectual y el Derecho a la Salud, con Énfasis en el Acceso a Medicamentos," [Intellectual Property and the Right to Health, with Emphasis on Access to Medicines] . International Course on Access to Medicines and the Right to Health. Remote: International Course organized by Vacunas para la Gente [The People's Vaccine Alliance, Latin American chapter] .

Ceron Valdes, M. (2023). Challenging Power through Grassroots Organization, South-to-South Collaborations, and International Solidarity. Critical Perspectives from Latin America. Evolving Landscapes of Human Rights. Storrs, CT: Human Rights Institute at University of Connecticut.

Ceron Valdes, M. (2015). Derecho a la salud en Guatemala: Relaciones entre ciudadanos, proveedores e instituciones en un Sistema Disfuncional" [Right to health in Guatemala: relationships between citizens, providers and institutions in a dysfunctional system]. Congreso Nacional de Ciencias de la Salud del Colegio de Médicos de Guatemala [Guatemalan Medical Association's Health Sciences National Conference]. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Colegio de Medicos de Guatemala [Guatemalan Medical Association].

Ceron Valdes, M. (2022). La Determinación Social de la Resistencia Antimicrobiana: Consideraciones para la Acción desde las Comunidades. VII Semana Científica. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar.

Ceron Valdes, M. (2016). "Interculturalidad y Salud Pública en America Latina: Conceptos y Avances en Politica de Salud Intercultural" [Multiculturalism and Public Health in Latin America: Concepts and Progress in Multicultural Health Policy]. Bogota, Colombia: Doctorado Interfacultades en Salud Pública, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.