Dori Beeler is a medical anthropologist whose work spans across a contemporary and socio-historical understanding of the intersections between healing and spirituality; medical science, expertise and law; health and wellbeing; healthcare and commodity; the body as culture; oral history and tradition; and children’s health and care. She has done extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Britain investigating Reiki practice with a focus on the practitioner, the client, and medical professionals. Her research led to a description, within Reiki practice, of the relationship between spirituality and wellbeing and the values, such as love, connection, and care that exemplify this relationship. Underlying Dori’s work is her interest in an in-depth understanding of the everyday, lived experience of individuals and communities. She takes a person-centered approach in understanding how practices of the everyday inform culture and are in turn informed by culture, specifically medical culture. These concentrations are essential elements in her teaching and writing projects. Her current research within the center is focused on the ethnography of laboratory science and virtues within science that underpin human flourishing inside and outside the lab.
