Julio Villa-Palomino

I am a medical and sociocultural anthropologist. My research focuses broadly on mental health, psychiatric expertise, the ethics and politics of care, and violence in Peru and Latin America.

My current book project, Discharged: Mental Health, Suspicion, and Care in Peru, ethnographically examines Peru’s transition to a Community Mental Health model and the process of psychiatric deinstitutionalization, including the return of formerly institutionalized clients to their communities. My book shows how the ethos of “community care” reshapes boundaries between care and coercion, the neighborhood and the clinic, truth and rumor, informing on and helping out. I argue that community mental health is not simply a devolution of care from the state to community residents, but rather a series of interventions that weave together the state, health professionals, and neighbors—who are now legally, socially, and ethically responsible and accountable for care.

My research agenda includes forthcoming projects on (1) the afterlives of “closed” psychiatric hospitals, (2) mental health and disability activism in Latin America, and (3) art therapy for people with severe mental illness.

Research Interest(s):

• Mental Health, Illness, and Well-Being
• Psychological Anthropology
• Care and Violence
• Suspicion and Surveillance
• Anthropology of Community
• Latin America and Peru

Selected Awards and Grants:

• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant
• Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
• Society for Psychological Anthropology

Affiliation(s):

• Center for Global Health Equity
• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Selected Publications:

2025 | "The Psychological Anthropology of Mental Health and Psychiatric Treatment," in Cambridge Handbook of Psychological Anthropology. (with Jocelyn Lim Chua)

2025 | "Clonas, Estado, y Nación: La vida psíquica en la élite limeña." [Clonazepam, State, and Nation: The psychic life of the Lima elite] in El Privilegio en el Perú. Cómo construyen desigualdades quienes se benefician de ellas. 

2024 | “Learning to Care: Men’s Parental Caregiving for Sons and Daughters in Peru.” Men and Masculinities, 27(1), 23–41.

2024 | “Después del Manicomio: La Transición hacia la Salud Mental Comunitaria en el Peru (1980-2022).” [After  the  Asylum:  Peru’s  Transition  Towards  Community  Mental  Health  (1980-2022)]. Anthropologica, 42(52), 114-142.