ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would never have been written without the support, patience and
encouragement of my wife, Jordana Alexandrakis. She accompanied me to Athens in
2006. Together we worked hard to make our little health NGO a success, and she helped
me to navigate the various intellectual puzzles and complexities of conducting fieldwork.
Along the way we experienced some of the happiest and most frightening times of our
lives. Although Jordana appears only sparingly in the following (her own request), the
reader should know that she was often with me on-site, and always behind me. Jordana:
you made this adventure possible and I dedicate this work to you.
Financial support for my time at Rice and my research in Athens was provided, in
part, by a generous Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
(SSHRCC) Fellowship. I am grateful to SSHRCC for all their support.
I am indebted to a number of people at the Department of Anthropology, Rice
University. Among them I would like to single out Amy Ninetto and Nia Georges. Both
Amy and Nia provided invaluable critical feedback on article manuscripts and numerous
dissertation drafts. Also, I whish to thank Stephen Tyler for teaching one of the most
inspiring classes of my academic career, and Carole Speranza who put up with me in her
good way.
My years at Rice were also enhanced by my cohort and by the many others I met
both within and beyond the hedges. Among them I wish to thank: Brian Riedel, Katia