New Faculty Focus: Roberto Abadie

Roberto Abadie: Assistant professor, Department of Kinesiology, School of Education

Hometown: Montevideo, Uruguay

Educational/professional background: BA Sociology, Universidad de la República (Uruguay); MA Anthropology, Université Laval (Canada); PhD Anthropology, Graduate Center, City University of New York

What is your field of research, and how did you get into it? My work sits at the intersection of anthropology, public health, and bioethics. I am interested in understanding the everyday lives of people who inject drugs (PWID) and how colonialism, poverty, dispossession, and racism shape their injection behaviors, HIV/HCV and overdose risk, and other drug-related harms. I also focus on the exploitation of human volunteers in Phase I clinical trials. I participated in some clinical trials as a student, and I realized that we didn’t know much about participants’ motivations to become subjects or how they perceived the risks involved. For example, how much did the prospect of financial gain shape their desire to participate — and how much might that prospect override any misgivings or anxieties? I conducted the first empirical study of human volunteers anywhere in the world, and later extended my investigations into the lived experiences of Puerto Rican PWID and their risk environments.

What attracted you to UW–Madison? UW–Madison is a stimulating and supportive place to conduct my teaching and research. The facilities are excellent, and my colleagues offer an atmosphere of collegiality and intellectual curiosity. And Madison is a beautiful city!

What was your first visit to campus like? I was struck not only by the size of UW–Madison’s campus but also by its beauty. I also got lost in the maze of the Kinesiology building!

Do you feel your work relates in any way to the Wisconsin Idea? If so, please describe how? Although my work on health disparities among PWID of Puerto Rican origin seems distant from Madison, my research is rooted in the Wisconsin Idea in two ways. First, contributing to reducing stigma while increasing access to health care and treatment for opioid use disorders will alleviate suffering in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Second, migration and globalization forces have produced a recent wave of Puerto Rican migrants to our state, some in desperate need of treatment for opioid use disorder or HIV. My work can contribute to understanding migration patterns among this population, document their needs, and reduce barriers to access and retention to opioid use disorder medication, overdose prevention, or HIV/HCV care.

What’s something interesting about your area of expertise you can share that will make us sound smarter at parties? Drug addiction is never explained only by the drug or the brain. Addiction is rooted in biology but also in society. A caring, less unequal, and less punitive society has fewer problematic illicit drug use behaviors. Such a society is also a better place for everybody, not just for people who use drugs.

Hobbies/other interests: I love fishing and watching the occasional soccer match, particularly if my national team is playing.