Research

Across all my projects, I study how ordinary people forge knowledge when they are thrust into crisis. Whether it is family caregivers learning to manage Alzheimer’s at home or West-African migrants navigating Italy’s migration and health bureaucracies, I ask how culture, social networks, and state structures shape the practical knowledge people create to keep themselves and their loved ones afloat.

Current Projects

• Caregiving, Knowledge, and Dementia: This part of my research focuses on how informal caregivers manage the stressful aspects of taking care of family members with Alzheimer's and related Dementias. My work tries to bridge multiple fields that point to self-efficacy (i.e., confidence) as a mediator for perceived stress. I draw from sociological theory to study concepts and ideas frequently found in gerontology, policy studies, and demography. My work here also explores how people interact with loss, death, and crisis. When a loved one develops a chronic neurodegenerative disease, a rupture of that person's entire world-view and sense of self usually accompanies it. That being said, ideas of 'self' and one's trajectory (or expectations) are culturally bound. Through this part of my work, I compare experiences in the United States and Italy, specifically focusing on how carers learn to become experts in providing care for their loved ones over time.
• Immigration, Healthcare access, Structural Inequality, and Weaponized Bureaucracies: This part of my research focuses on how migrants navigate 'surgically' inefficient bureaucracies/institutions. As an 'expat' for most of my adult life, I've been interested in how migrants are stratified in their destination countries. My research in this field draws a lot from my background in anthropology and global health and tries to understand the consequences of restrictive state policies.

Publications

A list of selected publications can be found below (for a full list of working papers, see my CV):

• Cameron Beckett, (2024). "Health Inequities and Bureaucratic Barriers: Migrant Narratives in Italy’s Healthcare System." Revise and Resubmit in Current Sociology, pre-print available here (DOI link)
• Cameron Beckett, (2025). "Conceptual Contours of Caregiving, Burden, Expertise and Flourishing." In Preparation for Sociology of Health & Illness, pre-print available here (DOI link)

Awards and Honors

• Assegno di Ricerca, Banca di Forlì (2022)
  €17,400 total research grant supporting Alzheimer’s and dementia studies in Emilia-Romagna.
• Education Advantage Scholarship, Baxter Healthcare Corp. (2017)
  $7,000/year renewable scholarship for undergraduates living with hemophilia A or B.