Pictured: Dr. Maskarinec
By UH Med Now
Gregory G. Maskarinec, PhD, has been appointed the Director of Global and International Health at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), succeeding Dr. Satoru Izutsu, who retired at the end of 2017.
Dr. Maskarinec is a cultural anthropologist who has taught for nearly 20 years in the Departments of Native Hawaiian Health and Family Medicine and Community Health at the medical school.
He has conducted research on traditional medicine, medical education, and contemporary medical systems in Nepal, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Palau, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia (Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands as well as in Hawaiʻi and the continental United States (Arkansas).
The author of several books and many articles, his work on Nepal has been honored, on the recommendation of the Nepal Royal Academy, with the “Birendra Pragyalankar” from the late King of Nepal, Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, and with a “Vidhyadhari,” Honorary degree of Sanskritic Scholarship, awarded by the late Yogi Naraharinath.
Dr. Maskarinec is an affiliate scholar of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS, Paris), has twice received Senior Fullbright Awards, and has taught as a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu (Nepal); Asian University for Women, Chittagong (Bangladesh); University of Paris X (Nanterre); and the University of Zürich (Switzerland).
In 2016, Maskarinec was given the “National Honor – 2016 Award” from the Nepal literary organization “Nepal Sahitya dot com,” honoring his lifetime commitment to Nepali language and literature.