Margaret Weeks, PhD

Executive Director, Institute for Community Research (Affiliate)

Research Overview

Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D., is a socio-cultural anthropologist and Executive Director of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut. For over 17 years, Dr. Weeks has conducted community-based, applied social science research and worked with numerous community partners on collaborative studies and program development. Her research has focused on issues of substance abuse and AIDS prevention, primarily with drug users and their sex partners, as well as on women’s health and gender issues both in the U.S. and China. Dr. Weeks is currently conducting a study of female condom acceptability and use for HIV/STD prevention in high-risk women in Hartford and a study to test an experimental program to train active drug users as “Peer Health Advocates” who provide HIV prevention to their peers in high-risk drug-use settings in the city. Her prior research has focused on various community outreach and culturally targeted intervention programs to reduce HIV transmission among inner city drug users. She also has conducted research on the status of women in the People’s Republic of China and is currently initiating a study of AIDS prevention with commercial sex workers in rural areas in southern China.

Education

Ph.D., University of Connecticut, 1987 (anthropology)
M.A., University of Connecticut, 1980 (anthropology)
B.A., State University of New York at Potsdam, 1978 (anthropology)

Recent Publications