About

Gideon Lasco
 is a physician and medical anthropologist working as a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University and Research's Knowledge, Technology & Innovation Group. He is also senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman's Department of Anthropology, research fellow at the Ateneo de Manila University's Development Studies Program, and fellow-at-large at Hong Kong University's Centre for Criminology. 

He obtained his bachelor’s (BSc in Basic Medical Sciences) and medical degree (MD) from the UP College of Medicine (UPCM) under the INTARMED program. After practicing medicine briefly as a resident physician in his home province of Laguna, he pursued medical anthropology, receiving an MSc in Medical Anthropology from UPCM and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam. 

He was visiting PhD researcher at the Washington University of St. Louis (2015) and National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute (2016); visiting faculty at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil (2019); visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2021). He has given keynotes and lectures to various institutions including Columbia University, La Trobe University, Humboldt University, University of Toronto, among others, and has presented in numerous social science and public health conferences from Barcelona to Bogota. 

Lasco's research projects have focused on contemporary health issues, including drug issues, COVID-19, health systems, and politics of health, and yielded over 50 journal articles and book chapters in the past five years, including in The Lancet (as part of a series on racism and health), Current Anthropology, Social Science & Medicine, Anthropology & MedicineMedical Anthropology Quarterly, Sociology of Health & Illness, Philippine Studies, International Journal Drug Policy, along with a range of interdisciplinary journals from The Journal of Sex Research to Open Theology.  They have also led to two academic books: Drugs and Philippines Society (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2021), an edited volume which features critical perspectives on drug use and drug policy in the country, as well as Height Matters, forthcoming monograph on human stature with the University of the Philippines Press. 

As an applied anthropologist and public health practitioner, Lasco has also served as consultant for organizations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). In 2019, he was selected by the Equity Initiative as an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia

Beyond his work in medical anthropology and public health, he is also involved in environmental and civic initiatives, building not just on his academic background but his lifelong pursuit of mountain climbing. He is a trustee of Centre for Sustainability, an environmental non-profit organisation based in Palawan and of the Philippine Center for Investigate Journalism (PCIJ). He serves as board member of Ugnayang Pang-Agham Tao (UGAT), the national association of anthropologists in the Philippines, and of 
the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP). He also maintains a weekly column on health, culture, and national affairs in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, as well as a column in SAPIENS, the online anthropology magazine, that focuses on the relationships of humans with other species. Recently, he also co-hosted a podcast on drug issues called 'Tokhang sa Tokhang', after having guested in podcasts like that of Howie Severino and Ethan Nadelman, as well as in WNYC and The Lancet Voice

For his scholarly work, he received the Virginia A. Miralao Award for Research Excellence (VAMERA) and the inaugural ISSDP Research Excellence Award, and for his creative writing he has received a Palanca Award for Essay, among other citations. In 2022, he was named Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) and one of the Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) in the Philippines; that year, he also received the National Book Award for The Philippines Is Not A Small Country, cited by The Guardian as one of the 'books than explain the world'.

Updated August 2023