Dr. Adams ran until 2012 the UCSF division of the joint (with UC Berkeley) graduate program in Medical Anthropology. She teaches core theory courses on the history and development of medical anthropology, social studies of science, technology and medicine, and ethnographic field methods. Her research interests include the social conditions and epistemological framings of integrative medicine, international health development, women's health and health care in Tibet, theories of modernity in relation to morality, disaster capitalism, aging and displacement politics, and toxic exposures from agrochemical and industrial food systems. She has worked for 22 years on medical anthropology topics such as medical pluralism, medicine and social change, the politics of clinical trials research in the Himalayan region (Nepal and Tibet), and more recently on life disruption and disaster as a way of life in post Katrina New Orleans. She is also interested in global studies of science, technology and medicine, and particularly the postcolonial exchange of scientific activities (from labs to field sites, informed consent procedures to the residual problem of spirit-caused disorders).

Currently accepting students for advising: Yes