THE ROOTS

Howard grew up in a small town in northeastern Ohio. At an early age, tragedy in his low-income family spurred an interest in the relationships among oppression and inequality, public health, and medicine. Waitzkin received his MD and PhD in sociology from Harvard University. Over the course of his career, Waitzkin has practiced as a primary care physician in internal medicine and has taught social medicine at a variety of clinics and universities, including the United Farm Workers Clinic in Salinas, California; La Clínica de la Raza in Oakland, California; Stanford University Medical Center; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; and the University of California. Waitzkin joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico in 1997. Since then, Howard has traveled the world advocating for progressive action in regards to health care services and social conditions, that most recently culminated in book tour surrounding his publication Rinky Dink Revolution.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• LEO G. REEDER AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP IN MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY, 1997.

• FULBRIGHT NEW CENTURY SCHOLAR, 2001-2002.

• FELLOW OF THE JOHN SIMON GUGGENHEIM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, 2002-2003.

• JONATHAN MANN AWARD FOR LIFETIME COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES FROM THE NEW MEXICO PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, 2003.

• DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR (HIGHEST FACULTY RANK), UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, 2005-PRESENT.

• PRESIDENTIAL TEACHING FELLOW AWARD (HIGHEST TEACHING AWARD), UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, 2010-2012.

• ELIOT FREIDSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PUBLICATION FROM THE MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 2012.

• LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM THE MARXIST SOCIOLOGY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 2016.

• FULBRIGHT SENIOR FELLOWSHIP, KOREA, 2019.

podcasts

Howard talks about his life, capitalism, everyday joy, “Rinky dink Revolution”, and “social medicine and the coming transformation” in this podcast, hosted by highly esteemed Bill Ayers.

The US is a rich country with a s****y health care system. What went wrong? The short answer: capitalism. Good medicine at its heart requires trust and an assumption of honesty and good intentions; the market requires nothing more nor less than profits for shareholders. The corporate capitalist capture of health care destroys the natural underpinnings of care and compassion. We’re joined today by Howard Waitzkin, a primary care physician and sociologist who has taught social medicine at a wide range of clinics, colleges, and universities, including the United Farm Workers Clinic in Salinas, California; La Clínica de la Raza in Oakland; Stanford University; Massachusetts General Hospital; and the University of California.

PAMPHLETS/ MANIFESTOS

MOVING BEYOND CAPITALISM – NOW!

Howard initiated and now edits an important series of pamphlets/ manifestos that envision how concretely we can begin to move from capitalism to post-capitalism. The link below shows the items that are available so far, and others are in the pipeline. This effort is a collaboration between Daraja Press and Monthly Review Essays. We welcome your feedback and participation!

Moving beyond capitalism—Now! represents a collaboration between Daraja Press and Monthly Review magazine.

We are living in revolutionary times. The present contains tremendous dangers: nuclear war, global warming and other environmental catastrophes, the condemnation of vast sections of humanity into sacrifice zones, and the growing threat of fascism—a world based on deepening expropriation of nature, inequality, repression, and suffering. These dangers have also generated global resistance and social movements aiming to end the rapacious features of capitalism, to create a world based on harmony with nature, cooperative relationships of mutual aid, and decision-making by ordinary people about the directions our societies will take.

The aim is to publish and distribute, in some instances as a collaboration between Daraja Press and Monthly Review, brief, easy-to-understand publications that present concrete proposals/manifestos for revolutionary actions that will help us move beyond the global capitalist political-economic system. Our vision is to produce clear, simply written, and creative manifestos in article or pamphlet formats, in the style of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’s Communist Manifesto, and Peter Kropotkin’s An Appeal to the Young.