Beatriz Reyes-Foster, PhD
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Dr. Beatriz Reyes-Foster (she/her/ella) is the Interim Associate Dean in the College of Graduate Studies. She also is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCF and served as a Graduate Program Director from 2017 through 2023. After earning her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, she joined UCF, where she established herself as a cultural and medical anthropologist. Her research focuses on the intersections of health, medicine, and society, particularly health disparities and social inequality.
Dr. Reyes-Foster authored Psychiatric Encounters, which examines Mexico’s public psychiatric care system and the effects of neoliberal reforms. Her second book, Sharing Milk, co-authored with Shannon Carter, explores the practice of human milk sharing in the Global North and its impact on infant feeding in the US. She is developing research on psychotherapeutic interventions in the context of psychotic disorders in Mexico and writing a social history of psychiatry in Yucatan. Her work addresses coloniality, identity, health, and the intersection of religion and biomedicine.
With a distinguished academic career at UCF, she has garnered numerous accolades in teaching, research, and service. In 2021, she was honored with the prestigious Luminary Award, reflecting her exceptional contributions to the field.