Clarence C. Gravlee

This week we kick off a new academic year of journal club in medical anthropology and population health with a recent paper from Social Science and Medicine:

Coreil, J., Mayard, G., Simpson, K., Lauzardo, M., Zhu, Y., & Weiss, M. G. (2010). Structural forces and the production of TB-related stigma among Haitians in two contexts. Social Science & Medicine.

We’ll meet on Friday, September 3, 10:40 – 11:30 a.m. in the Medical Anthropology Lab, Turlington B103. See you there!

The beauty of medical anthropology, if you ask me, is that we could go from last week’s article about aldosterone and physiological responses to stress to this week’s discussion about the following article:

Whyte, S. R. (2009). Health identities and subjectivities: The ethnographic challenge. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 23(1), 6-15.

Noelle Sullivan will lead our discussion beginning at 12:50 on Friday in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room). Please join us.

After a three-week hiatus, journal club returns this week with an article presented by Amy Non:

Kubzansky, L. D., & Adler, G. K. (2010). Aldosterone: a forgotten mediator of the relationship between psychological stress and heart disease. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 34(1), 80-86.

Join us on Friday at 12:50 – 1:40 p.m. in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies).

This week the Society for Applied Anthropology will hold it annual meeting in Mérida, México. University of Florida anthropologists usually have a strong presence at these meetings, and this year is no exception. Allan Burns, Chair of our Department, is the current President of SfAA, and UF alumnus Francisco Fernandez, now Associate Rector at Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, is one of the program chairs.

Here are the papers I know about by current faculty and students affiliated with medical anthropology at UF. There are, of course, many more papers by UF anthropologists working on other topics, especially ecology and development. If I’ve overlooked any UF medical anthropologists, please leave a comment to let me know. The papers are listed in chronological order, with session numbers in parentheses.

MARTEN, Meredith (U Florida) Health Care Sustainability and Civil Society in Sub-Saharan Africa. (W-66)

RAHIM-WILLIAMS, Bridgett (U Florida) and SAMARAWICKREMA, Indira. An Exploratory Study of Type 2 Diabetes among African American Women in the U.S. and Women in Sri Lanka (W-70)

SCHULTZ, Alan (U Florida) Happiness, Trust and Reciprocity in a Highly Self-Sufficient Society (TH-33)

BOLIN, Anne (Elon U), WHELEHAN, Patricia (SUNY-Potsdam), BOLTON, Ralph (Pomona Coll, Chijnaya Fdn), GRAVLEE, Clarence C. (U Florida), and FELDMAN, Douglas A. (SUNY-Brockport) Issues in Teaching Human Sexuality: Sexual Orientations (TH-69)

GRAVLEE, Clarence C. (U Florida) Race, Racism, and the Neurobiology of Stress: Implications for Ethnography (TH-98)

HOPKINS, Allison (U Florida) Globalization and Medicinal Plant Remedy Knowledge Acquisition and Variation in Tabi, Yucatan, Mexico (TH-125)

D’ERRICO, Nicole C. (U Florida) Born in Violence: The Consequences of Sexually Violent Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (TH-127)

DOLWICK GRIEB, Suzanne (U Florida) Strained Communication: HIV Stigma in a Migrant Community (F-11)

STAGGS, Kristin (Duval Cty Hlth Dept) and WINTERBAUER, Nancy (U Florida, Duval Cty Hlth Dept) The Integration and Application of Identity Theory with the Behavioral Health Stages of Change Model (F-35)

RAHIM-WILLIAMS, Bridgett (U Florida) The Self as Subject: Interpreting Diabetes Self-management (F-35)

MONROE, Douglas A., GRAVLEE, Clarence C., and MCCARTY, Christopher (U Florida) Ethnography and Measurement in Public Health Research: Everyday Racism among African Americans (F-35)

RANHORN, Kathryn (U Florida) Homelessness in Gainesville: An Ethnography of Illness, Social Network, and Criminalization (F-93)

TOVAR, Jose A. (U Florida) Lucha de Titanes: Interactions with Collaborative Research Intervention Projects (S-9)

MCCARTY, Christopher, MONROE, Douglas, and GRAVLEE, Clarence (U Florida) Personal Social Networks and the Experience of Racism among African Americans: Implications for Health Disparities (S-37)

For a complete listing or more detail, see the Preliminary Program (PDF) at the SfAA website. ¡Nos vemos en Mérida!

This week we’re delighted to be joined by Peter Collings’s colleague, Fredrik Lindencrona, from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. We will take advantage of this opportunity to discuss a paper related to Dr. Lindencrona’s expertise:

Sellstrom, E., & Bremberg, S. (2006). The significance of neighbourhood context to child and adolescent health and well-being: A systematic review of multilevel studies. Scandanavian Journal of Public Health, 34(5), 544-554.

Please join us for the discussion in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room) on Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m.

Today I’ll be giving an online presentation as part of an EPA-sponsored webinar (where did that word come from?) on “The Use of Race in Environmental Health Research: What Does/Could It Mean?” The event is a precursor to a symposium EPA will host in two weeks, “Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts.” I’m very happy to join Gilbert Gee and Charmaine Royal on the panel.

The event is being recorded, and my understanding is that the audio and slide presentations will be posted online soon. When that happens, I’ll update this post with the link.

For this week’s discussion, Doug Monroe selected an article that was featured in a New York Times editorial two weeks ago. As the Times suggested, this study has flamed debate over sex education policy because it suggests that, under certain circumstances, abstinence-only education can delay the start of sexual activity.

Jemmott, J. B., Jemmott, L. S., & Fong, G. T. (2010). Efficacy of a theory-based abstinence-only intervention over 24 months: a randomized controlled trial with young adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 164(2), 152-159.

Visit the journal club page to download the PDF, and join us Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m., in Grinter 376 for the discussion.

Our discussion this week focuses on a recent paper by Ryan Brown, Dan Hruschka, and Carol Worthman in the American Anthropologist:

Brown, R. A., Hruschka, D. J., & Worthman, C. M. (2009). Cultural models and fertility timing among Cherokee and White youth in Appalachia: Beyond the mode. American Anthropologist, 111(4), 420-431.

Please join us Friday, Feb. 19, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m. in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room). I’ll be moderating the discussion, and we’ll have two visitors—a prospective student and a prospective colleague—join us.

Most of the articles we have discussed lately come from the intersection of anthropology and public health. This week we will discuss an article that represents another important strain of medical anthropology: the study of biomedicine as a cultural system. Noelle Sullivan selected the following article for discussion:

Castel, P. (2009). What’s behind a guideline?: Authority, competition and collaboration in the French oncology sector. Social Studies of Science, 39(5), 743-764.

Please join us to discuss this article on Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m., in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room).

This week Dr. Alyson Young will lead our discussion of a brand-new article by her mentor, Ivy Pike, and colleagues:

Pike, I. L., Straight, B., Oesterle, M., Hilton, C., & Lanyasunya, A. (2010). Documenting the health consequences of endemic warfare in three pastoralist communities of northern Kenya: A conceptual framework. Social Science & Medicine, 70(1), 45-52.

This article is part of a special issue of Social Science and Medicine on conflict, violence and health. There are a series of interesting and important articles on this timely topic. You may want to begin with the introduction to the issue by Catherine Panter-Brick, “Conflict, violence, and health: Setting a new interdisciplinary agenda.”

We meet tomorrow in Grinter 375 (Latin American Studies), 12:50 – 1:40 p.m.