Robert A. Rubinstein (born 1951) is a

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

whose work bridges the areas of

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...

and

medical anthropology Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and applied ...

, and the history and theory of the discipline. He is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Professor of International Relations at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.Robert A. Rubinstein
Maxwell School website, Retrieved July 13, 2011

Education and research

Rubinstein received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the

State University of New York at Binghamton The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...

in 1977. He received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

from the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois s ...

in 1983. Rubinstein has conducted overseas research in urban and rural

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, where he lived from 1988–1992, and in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

and Mexico. In the United States, he has conducted research in Atlanta, Chicago, and Syracuse.

Organizations

In 1983, Rubinstein was a founding member of the Commission on Peace and Human Rights of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. He is co-chair of the commission, and from 2000—2004 he was editor of the commission’s official journal, Social Justice: Anthropology, Peace and Human Rights. Rubinstein was from 1999-2013 a member of the board of directors of the

Ploughshares Fund Ploughshares Fund is a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons, and to prevent conflicts that could lead to their use. Ploughshares Fund is a 501(c)(3) foundation that pools con ...

Fort Mason Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 18 ...

, San Francisco, California. He received the 2016 The Victor Sidel and Barry Levy Award for Peace from the American Public Health Associatio

and the 2010 Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Anticipatory Anthropology from the American Anthropological Associatio

h1>

Theories

Rubinstein applies a multilevel theoretical perspective to examining aspects of human social life. Since proposing in 1984 the "Rule of Minimal Inclusion," in ''Science as Cognitive Process'' (which says that adequate accounts of human phenomena must include information about the adjacent levels of systemic organization to those at the level of the phenomenon investigated) Rubinstein has applied this perspective to a variety of areas. He used this view to explore the variety of ways in which culture is important to

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United ...

operations. Beginning in the mid-1980s he published a series of articles that show how the success of peacekeeping missions are critically dependent upon understanding the culture of the people among whom the mission works, and the importance of understanding the organizational cultures of the agencies who work together in a mission. He applies this view in medical anthropology where he has made theoretical contributions and also shown how multilevel analysis is critical for understanding racial and ethnic disparities in health.

Selected works

Selected books

*Rubinstein, Robert A., Charles D. Laughlin, and John McManus. 1984. ''Science as Cognitive Process: Toward an Empirical Philosophy of Science''. Philadelphia, PA:

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

Press. *Rubinstein, Robert A. and Hendrik Pinxten, eds. 1984. ''Epistemology and Process: Anthropological Views''. Ghent, Belgium: Communication and Cognition Books. *Foster, Mary LeCron and Robert A. Rubinstein, 1986. ''Peace and War: Cross-cultural Perspectives''. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. *Rubinstein, Robert A. and Mary LeCron Foster, 1988. ''The Social Dynamics of Peace and Conflict: Culture in International Security''. Boulder, Co: Westview Press. *Rubinstein, Robert A., ed. 2001. ''Doing Fieldwork: The Correspondence of Robert Redfield and Sol Tax''. New Brunswick, NJ:Transaction Books.

Peacekeeping and culture

*Rubinstein, R.A., Culture, International Affairs and Multilateral Peacekeeping: Confusing Process and Pattern, CULTURAL DYNAMICS 2(1):41-61, 1989. *Rubinstein, R.A., Cultural Aspects of Peacekeeping: Notes on the Substance of Symbols, MILLENNIUM: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 22(3):547-562, 1993. *Rubinstein, R.A. Peacekeeping Under Fire: Understanding the Social Construction of the Legitimacy of Multilateral Intervention, HUMAN PEACE 11(4):22-29, 1998. *Rubinstein, R.A. Methodological Challenges in the Ethnographic Study of Multilateral Peacekeeping, POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 21(1):138-149, 1998. *Rubinstein, R.A., Intervention and Culture: An Anthropological Approach to Peace Operations, SECURITY DIALOGUE 36(4):527-544, 2005. *Rubinstein, R.A. ''Peacekeeping Under Fire: Culture and Intervention''. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008.

Multilevel analysis and health

*Rubinstein, R. A., S.D. Lane, S. Sallam, A. Sheta, Z.Gad, A.R. Sherif, M. Selim, A. Gad, A. Shama, J. Schachter, C.R. Dawson, Controlling Blinding Trachoma in the Egyptian Delta: Integrating Clinical, Epidemiological and Anthropological Understandings, ANTHROPOLOGY AND MEDICINE 13(2): 99-118, 2005. *S.D. Lane, S.D. Lane, R.H. Keefe, R.A. Rubinstein, B.A. Levandowski, M. Freedman, A. Rosenthal, D.A. Cibula, and M. Czerwinski, Marriage Promotion and Missing Men: African American Women in a Demographic Double Bind, MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY 18(2): 405-428, 2004. *S.D. Lane, R.A. Rubinstein, R. Keefe, N. Webster, D. Cibula, A. Rosenthal and J. Dowdell,

Structural Violence Structural violence is a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. The term was coined by Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, who introduced it in hi ...

and Racial Disparity in HIV Transmission, JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AND UNDERSERVED 15:319-335, 2004. *Rubinstein, R.A., Scrimshaw, S., and S. Morrissey, S., Classification and Process in Sociomedical Understanding: Towards a Multilevel View of Sociomedical Methodology, Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine, G. Albrecht, R. Fitzpatrick, and S. Scrimshaw, editors. London: Sage. pp. 36–49, 2000.

References

External links

Rubinstein, Robert A., webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubenstein, Robert Rubinstein, Robert Rubinstein, Robert Rubinstein, Robert Binghamton University alumni Jewish anthropologists