Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Citizenship, Poverty, and the New Role of Tuberculosis Sanatoria in Post-Socialist Romania

博士生Jonathan J. Stillo（纽约城市大学研究生中心）将在Ida Susser博士的指导下，对后社会主义转型时期的贫困问题进行人类学研究。他将重点讨论结核病流行和罗马尼亚结核病疗养院系统的作用。众所周知，结核病的存在是社会经济压力的一个指标。罗马尼亚的发病率为10万分之109，是欧洲和中亚结核病流行最严重的国家之一。它也是仅存的将疗养院作为结核控制主要部分的国家之一。这些机构的病人往往很穷，他们的状况因精神疾病、酗酒和无家可归等因素而复杂化。初步研究表明，疗养院可能正在填补由于社会福利项目削减而留下的空缺，这可能是由于公众的需求。为了探索罗马尼亚结核病流行及其患者和工作人员所经历的社会经济基础，研究人员将在为期一年的项目中住在疗养院。斯蒂洛先生将进行档案研究、参与者观察和对疗养院医生和病人的广泛采访。他还将利用现有的统计数据进行新的分析，并补充在实地收集的新的调查数据。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于我们了解在资源贫乏的环境中流行病的风险，特别是在公民向国家提出特定护理要求的情况下。它还将帮助关注高风险结核病患者的决策者，因为耐药结核染色剂是世界上最大的健康问题之一。在一个贫困日益加剧、社会安全网日益削弱的时代，罗马尼亚疗养院的情况也将为了解后社会主义的现实提供宝贵的见解。这项研究将有助于培养社会科学家。

Doctoral student Jonathan J. Stillo (City University of New York Graduate Center), with the guidance of Dr. Ida Susser, will undertake anthropological research on poverty during post-Socalist transitions. He will focus on the tuberculosis epidemic and the role of the TB sanatoria system in Romania. The presence of TB is known to be an indicator of socio-economic stress. With an incidence rate of 109 per 100,000, Romania is the site of one of Europe and Central Asia's worst TB epidemics. It also is one of the last remaining countries to use sanatoria as a major part of TB control. Patients in these institutions tend to be very poor and their conditions complicated by such factors as mental illness, alcohol addiction, and homelessness. Preliminary research suggests that sanatoria may be filling roles left vacant due to cutbacks in social welfare programs, possibly because of public demand. To explore the Romanian TB epidemic and its socioeconomic foundationss as it is experienced by the patients and staff, the researcher will live at a sanatorium for a portion of this year-long project. Mr. Stillo will conduct archival research, participant observation and extensive interviews with sanatoria doctors and patients. He also will leverage existing statistical data with new analyses, complemented with new survey data collected in the field. This research is important because it will contribute to our understanding of the risks of epidemic disease in resource-poor settings, particularly where citizens make claims on the state for specific kinds of care. It also will aid policy makers concerned with high-risk TB patients because resistant TB stains represent one of the world's greatest health concerns. In a time of increasing poverty and weakening social safety nets, the situation in Romania's sanatoria also will offer valuable insights into the realities of post-Socialism. This research will contribute to the training of a social scientist.