Eana Xuyi Meng

Research Interests: History of medicine; integrative practices of medicine; social history of medicine.

Eana is a MD student at Harvard Medical School and a PhD candidate in the Department of History of Science. She is committed to the dual practice of medicine and history, and her work focuses on the lives of healthcare practitioners who have endeavored to bring primary care to their communities limited in resources through innovative means, including the utilization of non-biomedical health practices. 

For the past few years, she has been tracing the utilization of acupuncture by healthcare practitioners of the civil rights era and their modern legacies in the current opioid epidemic. Primarily, she works closely with Dr. Tolbert Small, a former physician for the Black Panther Party who began practicing acupuncture after a trip to China in 1972, to document his contributions to medicine and American history. She is now also working on documenting the history of the Community Health Aide Program in Alaska, a robust system of primary health care delivered by Indigenous populations. 

At the heart of her work lies the question, “Who is responsible for our health and care?” Ultimately, she argues that at any place and time, there is always evidence of human resiliency and responsibility wrought by the few - under near-impossible circumstances - that have made health and healing for the great many possible. 

Publications:

Lenhard, Johannes and Eana Meng. “How are People who Take Drugs Treated?” In People before Markets: An Alternative Casebook, edited by Daniel Scott Souleles, Johan Gersel, and Morten Sørensen Thaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Lenhard J, Margetts M, Meng E. “Of not passing: homelessness, addiction, mental health and care during COVID-19”, Medical Humanities (12 July 2022). doi: 10.1136/medhum-20210012367

Meng, Eana, and Johannes Lenhard. “Harm Reduction— And What Keeps Us From Embracing It Fully”. Medicine Anthropology Theory 9, 2 (2022): 1-9. doi.org/10.17157/mat.9.2.5781.

Meng, Eana. "Reflections on (Re)making History", Asian Medicine 16, 2 (2021): 295-309, doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341495.

Meng, Eana. "Photo Essay: Bringing Acupuncture to the People", Asian Medicine 16, 2 (2021): 276-294, doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341494.

Meng, Eana X. “Use of Acupuncture by 1970s Revolutionaries of Color: The South Bronx "Toolkit Care" Concept”, American Journal of Public Health, 111, no. 5 (May 1, 2021): pp. 896-906. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.306080

Presentations:

Meng, E. “’The Promised Land’: The 1972 Black Panther Party Delegation to China and Its Impacton Two Healthcare Providers.” American Association for the History of Medicine, April 23, 2022.

Meng, E and Johannes Lenhard. “Care trade-offs: deservingness between drug users, public health, and COVID-19.” Association of Social Anthropologists, March 31, 2021.

“In the Hands of the Revolutionaries and Communities: A Social History of Acupuncture (A Two-Part Video Series).” Harvard University Asia Center, September 2020.

Meng, E. “The Black Panther Party’s Use of Acupuncture.” British Society for the History of Science Digital History of Science Festival, July 6, 2020.

Previous Degrees:

B.A., History of Science, Harvard College

M.Phil., Health, Medicine, and Society, University of Cambridge