Alexandra Reichert -Whitten Research Fund 2022

Alexandra Reichert

Winner of the Norm and Sibby Whitten Research Fund 2022-2023

Indigeneity and Interculturalidad: Generating Indigenous Knowledge Exchange to Improve Birth Care in Kichwa and Waorani Communities

This project will investigate understandings and practices about birth in two distinct Indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Kichwa and the Waorani (Huaorani). Interviews with midwives, healers, women, community leaders, government officials and local Indigenous experts will uncover each groups’ birthing struggles, successes, and common practices. Through this work, Allie hopes to create spaces to share birthing expertise and create mutual understanding to address maternal mortality and morbidities that both groups face.

About Alexandra Reichert

Alexandra (Allie) Reichert is a PhD Student in the Anthropology Department at Vanderbilt University. She was granted 900 USD.

Publication resulting from the grant

Alexandra published a peer reviewed article that came from the research she carried out with the funds granted by Whitten, It was presented at the SALSA 2023 Conference in Leticia. The coauthor, Ofelia Salazar, is one of the leaders of Amupakin, the midwifery clinic where Alexandra has been working in Archidona, Ecuador. The paper was published in Spanish, in Mundos Plurales: Revista Latinoamericana de Políticas y Acción Pública:  https://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/mundosplurales/article/view/6169