Michelle Munyikwa, MD, PhD, Anthropology Homecoming Guest Alumni Lecture
Friday, October 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Washington Hall, Room 201
Structural Competency, Human Rights & Medicine: Perspectives from the Field
Michelle Munyikwa graduated from the joint MD/PhD program in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. She defended her dissertation, “Up from the Dirt: Racializing Refuge, Rupture, and Repair in Philadelphia,” in 2019. She is also a graduate of the Penn-CHOP combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics. Now, she is a fellow in adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Penn & CHOP. Prior to her time at Penn, she studied at the College of William and Mary, where she was a Murray 1693 Scholar. She graduated in 2011 with a self-designed major in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and a second major in Anthropology. A political and medical anthropologist by training, she is most interested in understanding the relationship between political economy, history, and practices of care. Her current book project, The Spatial Promise of Refuge, explores the relationship between refugee politics and race in the United States of America, centered on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Philadelphia and the institutions designed to care for them. She has also conducted research on political ideology in the United States, the use of race in biomedicine and medication education, and human rights & humanitarianism both domestically and abroad. Clinically, she is interested in work at the intersection of medicine, rights, and the law and have frequently collaborated with lawyers to advocate for patients.