Frances Alethea Marti

Qualitative Researcher
UCLA Center for Health Services and Society

I am an interdisciplinary linguistic anthropologist, currently at the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society. As research staff I have managed and assisted on projects looking at doctor/family communication, quality and access to mental health care, and measuring treatment outcomes.

Previously I have been a Research Scholar with the Center for the Study of Women, and a lecturer in Anthropology and Applied Linguistics.

Research Focus

The overarching thread in all my work is the use of language as a social tool: how we make use of language to express and also create our social identities, to develop professional expertise, and to build professional and personal relationships with others. My research has examined language and conversation in a variety of different settings, such as women's home and internet entrepreneurship, children's economic learning, gender roles in Mayan adolescent gossip, and community mental health care.

Technology is another longstanding interest of mine, especially how users adapt new tech to their own needs (sometimes in ways unanticipated by the designers) and how we can develop tools that are user-driven, broadly accessible, and easy to use. I spent two years as manager of the UCLA Anthropology/Sociology Digital Media Lab, and more recently helped develop and pilot test a web app to improve communication in ADHD psychiatric treatment (MH2).

Educational Background

PhD and MA in Anthropology (UCLA).

Predoctoral Fellow with the UCLA-FPR Center for Culture Brain and Development.

BA in Cognitive Science with an emphasis on computational modeling (UC Berkeley)