Department of Anthropology
Academic Staff - Assoc. Professor Christopher Lyttleton
Academic Profile
I first studied anthropology and media studies in New York. I had become interested in the combination of these fields when working in a museum in a mountain town in South Mexico. I pursued this area further for a PhD (at Sydney University) which looked at the effects of HIV/AIDS media campaigns in the villages of Northeast Thailand. I began teaching at Macquarie University in 1996. Before this I worked as a consultant in community development and HIV/AIDS projects in Thailand, Burma and Laos.
These days my academic interests are directed generally at issues of cultural identity, sexuality and subjectivity, disease and culture, minority groups and social transformations emerging from development policies in Southeast Asia. They are reflected in the courses I teach on and culture, health and sexuality; illness and healing; and development studies. They are also topics that I have been exploring in my ongoing work concerning the social impact of HIV and AIDS and other health issues emerging from social change in different parts of Southeast Asia.
My research over the past several years has broadly examined issues of cultural identity, sexuality and subjectivity, social suffering, health and development. To pursue these interests I have continued to document social change and health issues in a number of different ways. Recent projects have focused on male sexuality, migration and HIV vulnerability in the border areas of the upper Mekong; changing drug use patterns in the Golden Triangle, gender and belonging in HIV/AIDS support groups, community access to drug treatments, HIV/AIDS media interventions for ethnic groups.
I also work in a number of applied programs where my research is used in the planning, implementation and evaluation of projects aimed at improving livelihoods and health. In this context I work mainly in SE Asia on health and community development projects for NGOs and UN agencies
Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio.