RICHARD PARKER, Ph.D.

Richard Parker received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. His research has focused on the social and cultural construction of gender and sexuality, the social aspects of HIV/AIDS, and the relationship between social inequality, health and disease. Dr. Parker has conducted long-term research in Brazil since the early 1980s, as well as working on comparative studies carried out in Asia, Africa, North America and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, and is the author or editor of more than 15 books and numerous scientific articles. Since 1992, he has been Professor of Medical Anthropology and Sexuality in the Institute of Social Medicine (IMS) at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), where from 1995 to 1997 he served as Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Institutions. For the past 10 years, he has served as the Director of ABIA (the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association), the largest non-governmental AIDS service, research and advocacy organization in Brazil. He is also currently Associate Professor of Public Health in the Sociomedical Sciences Division of the Joseph L Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City.