Elisa Sobo, Ph.D.
Society & AI Contributor
San Diego State University
Expertise
Elisa (EJ) Sobo is a Professor of Anthropology and AI Faculty Fellow at San Diego State University, where she also serves as Director of Undergraduate Research for the College of Arts and Letters. A sociocultural and medical anthropologist with more than three decades of professional experience spanning academic research, clinical settings, and public health practice, she has built a scholarly career around understanding how people navigate medical technologies, institutional systems, and the social forces that shape health-related decision-making.
Her research has examined vaccine selectivity, pediatric cannabis use, sound healing, conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19, and — most recently — the pedagogical challenges and institutional opportunities posed by generative AI in higher education. As PI of the ACORN (AI-Ready Curricular Options Resource Network) initiative, funded through the California State University’s AI Education Innovation Challenge (AIEIC), Dr. Sobo leads a faculty taskforce developing a scalable, whole-program AI literacy toolkit for use across the CSU system. Her broader scholarship on AI and education has appeared in Anthropology News, the Annals of Anthropological Practice, and Anthropological Forum, among other venues, and has been featured in Inside Higher Education and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Dr. Sobo has published 13 books, including a forthcoming sixth edition of Caring for Patients in Different Cultures and Dynamics of Human Biocultural Diversity (Routledge, 2020), along with numerous peer-reviewed and public-facing articles. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and NPR, among other major outlets. She earned her Ph.D. from UC San Diego and received postdoctoral training in medical anthropology at Case Western Reserve University. She has held faculty appointments at the University of Durham (UK), New Mexico State University, and the University of Arizona, and has worked in clinical and hospital environments including Children’s Hospital San Diego and the Veterans Health Administration.
Learn more at anthropology.sdsu.edu/people/sobo.
Professional Appointments
Professor of Anthropology, San Diego State University
Director of CAL Undergraduate Research, College of Arts and Letters, SDSU
AI Faculty Fellow, Information Technology Division, SDSU
Past President, Society for Medical Anthropology
Past Section Convener and Co-Chair, Committee on Public Policy, American Anthropological Association
