George Brandon, Ph.D.

Associate Medical Professor and Chair (Acting)
Community Health and Social Medicine

School of Biomedical Education

Office: H-201
Phone: (212) 650-5747 
Fax: (212) 650-8839
E-mail: ogun@med.cuny.edu

Education

B.A., 1970, Reed College;
M.A., 1978, Ph.D., 1983, Rutgers University.

Research Interests

• Alternative and complementary medicine, acupuncture as treatment for addition to heroin, alcohol, and cocaine.

• Religious and folk medicine systems, as well as food use as medicine among Black elderly, and NYC immigrant populations of Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Greeks and North & South Indians.

Publications

Articles:

• “Social Structure, Social Stratification and Disease Risk” in (ed. G. Brandon) Health Culture
  and Society: a book of readings. New York: Linus Publications, 2010: 112-142.
• ------- with Michelle Weber. “Afro-Caribbean Traditions” in The Medical Manual of Religio-
  Cultural Competence: Caring for Religiously Diverse Populations. New York: Tannenbaum
  Center for Interreligious Understanding, 2009: 178-192.
• ‘Orisha’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage
  Publications, Thousand Oaks CA 2009: 503-506.
• ‘Santeria’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage
  Publications, Thousand Oaks CA 2009: 589-593.
• ‘Shango’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage
  Publications, Thousand Oaks CA 2009: 612 – 614.
  
• “Getting into the Spirit: an Ethnographic Profile of African-American Spiritual Healers,” in (eds. Carol and Melvin Ember) Portraits of Culture: Original Readings. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, revised for 2^nd (Electronic) edition, 2008.
• “From Oral to Digital: Rethinking the Transmission of Yoruba Religious Traditions” in (ed. Jacob Olupona and Terry Rey) Orisha Devotion as a World Religion: the Globalization of  Yoruba Religious Culture. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2008: 448-469.
• “Where Men Are Wives and Mothers Rule: Santeria Ritual Practices and Their Gender Implications” by Mary Ann Clark. Book Review. Journal of Religion, July 2007,vol.87, no.3: 474-475. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• ‘Orisha’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks CA(in press.)
• ‘Santeria’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks CA(in press.)
• ‘Shango’ in (ed. Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of African Religions. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks CA(in press.)
• “Santeria” in (ed. Peter B. Clarke) Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements, Routledge, Oxon, 2006: 502-503.
• “Santeria” in (ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama) Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks CA, 2005: 426-429.
• “Sacrificial Practices in Santeria, an African Cuban Religion,” in (ed. Joseph Holloway) Africanisms in the United States, Indiana University Press, Bloomington., second revised and expanded edition 2005: 249- 282.
• “Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah,” American Historical Review, 2005, 110, 3: 830-831.
• “How Elegba Was Born: Memory, Death and Rebirth in Yoruba Spirituality,” Contours, a Journal of the African Diaspora, University of Illinois, 2004 Fall 2, 2: 157-173.
• “Jamaican Maroons,” Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures(eds. Carol and Melvin Ember) New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum and The Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, 2004, vol.2: 754-765.
• “Hierarchy without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States 1959-1999 with Special Reference to Santeria,” Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religion, 117 (January- March 2002), Paris: 151-174.
• “Ochun in the Bronx,” in (eds. Joseph Murphy and Mei-Mei Sanford) Oshun Across the Waters: a Yoruba Goddess in Africa and the Americas. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2001: 155–164.
• “Convince,” in (ed. Stephen Glazier) Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions, Routledge, New York, 2001: 101-102.
• “Healing in African and African-derived Religions,” in (ed. Stephen Glazier) Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions, Routledge, New York, 2001: 132-139.
• “Santeria,” in (ed. Stephen Glazier) Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions. Routledge, New York, 2001: 285-290.
• “Dancing within Two Worlds: Theatre, Ritual and Performance Perspectives on the Santeria Bembe.” Proceedings of the First Works in Progress Conference, City University of New York Institute for Research on the African Diaspora and the Caribbean. IRADAC, New York, 2000:

Books:

• Health, Culture and Society: a book of readings. New York: Linus Publications, 2010.
  
• Santeria from Africa to the New World: the Dead Sell Memories. Indiana University Press, 1993.
• Light from the Forest: How Santeria Heals through Plants. Blue Unity Press, Newark, 1991.

Last Updated: 2/11/13