My current research includes two primary projects. The first is a long-term study of the impacts of the development of the oil industry and the construction of a major pipeline on households in southern Chad. Since 2001 we have been following 120 households in three localities that differ in terms of their proximity to the oilfields and pipeline, productive base, degree of integration into the cash economy, and access to health care facilities and institutions of governance. In addition to testing whether the pipeline project is a "model" for other infrastructure-as-development projects, as the World Bank and others have suggested, the research project is also designed as a study of health transition and health transition theory. The project includes a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from Chad and the US.

My second project is an ethnographic study of the social worlds of young women in four major US cities (Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, and New York City) who are living with HIV. One of the aims of this work is to problematize the concepts of ‘adherence’ and ‘compliance’ as these terms are commonly used and understood in clinical settings, and to show how young women’s use (or non-use) of therapeutic possibilities fits into the much broader context of their lives. The ethnographic portion of the study involves regular interviews with 6 to 8 young women at each of the four sites, as well as regular interviews with their friends and family members. This work is part of a NIDA-funded study on care use among HIV-positive adolescent females that also includes the collection of structured clinical data on mental health, drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, and contraceptive use for approximately 300 young women, as well as data collected from their parents, guardians, and friends.

International Health, Chad, Anthropology, Ethnography, Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects, Long-Term Studies, Oil, Qualitative Research, Reproductive Health, Visual Methods, Adolescents, Women's Health

Faculty Innovation Award

New Century Scholars Award, J. William Fulbright Foundation and the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)

Population Council Fellowship

David E. Bell Fellowship (MacArthur Foundation), Harvard University, Center for Population and Development Studies

J. William Fulbright Fellowship

Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Harvard University

Julian Mack Summer Research Grant, Harvard University, School of Public Health

Leonard, L. (2005). Where there is no state: Household strategies for the management of illness in Chad. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 229-243.

Meyers, T., Leonard, L., and Ellen, J.M. (2004). The clinic and elsewhere: Illness, sexuality, and social experience among young African-American men in Baltimore, Maryland. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 28, 67-86.

Leonard, L. (2003). Possible illnesses: Assessing the health impacts of the Chad Pipeline Project. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 81, 427-433.

Leonard, L. (2002). “Looking for children”: The search for fertility among the Sara of southern Chad. Medical Anthropology, 21, 79-112

Leonard, L. (2002). Problematizing fertility: ‘Scientific’ accounts and Chadian women’s narratives. In: M. Inhorn, and F. van Balen (Eds.), Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies. University of California Press.

Leonard, L., and VanLandingham, M. (2001) Adhering to the CDC’s travel health recommendations: The experience of Nigerian immigrants in Houston, Texas. Journal of Immigrant Health, 3, 31-45.

Chatterjee, N., and Leonard, L. (2001). Partners in Health: A new frontline for disease prevention and health promotion in the community. American Journal of Health Education, 32, 52-55.

Leonard, L. (2000). Interpreting female genital cutting: Moving beyond the impasse. Annual Review of Sex Research, 11, 158-190.

Leonard, L. The adoption of female circumcision in southern Chad. (2000). In: B. Shell-Duncan, and Y. Hernlund (Eds.), Female Circumcision: Culture, Change and Controversy in sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 167-191). Boulder: Lynne Reinner Publishers.

Sangi-Haghpeykar, H., Frank, M.L., Leonard, L., and Poindexter, A.N. (2000). A qualitative study of perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of long-term Levonorgestrel implant users. Women and Health, 30, 93-108.

Leonard, L. (2000). “We did it for pleasure only”: Hearing alternative tales of female circumcision. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 212-228.

Leonard, L., Ndiaye, I., Kapadia, A., Eisen, G., Diop, O., Mboup, S, and Kanki, P. (2000). HIV prevention among male clients of female sex workers in Kaolack, Senegal: Results of a peer education program. AIDS Education and Prevention, 12, 21-37.

Chatterjee, N., Leonard, L., and Ross, M. (1999). The role of private physicians in STD control in an inner-city community in the southern United States. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 5, 34-39.

Leonard, L., Chatterjee, N., and Ross, M. (1999). Preventing syphilis: Lessons from a survey of two inner-city communities in Houston, Texas. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 10, 362-375.

Maruti, S., Hwang, L.Y., Ross, M.W., Leonard, L., Paffel, J., and Hollins, L. (1997). The epidemiology of early syphilis in Houston, Texas, 1994-1995. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 24, 475-480.

Leonard, L. (1996). Female circumcision in southern Chad: Origins, meaning, and current practice. Social Science and Medicine, 43, 255-263.

Leonard, L. (1996). Cigarette smoking and perceptions about smoking and health in Chad. East African Medical Journal, 73, 509-512.

Walsh, D.C., Sorenson, G., and Leonard, L. (1995). Gender, health and cigarette smoking. In B. Amick, S. Levine, A. Tarlov, and D.C. Walsh (Eds.), Society and Health (pp. 131-171). New York: Oxford University Press.