As part of this project, Mould will be offering a service-learning course in the Fall 2015 to allow students to collaborate directly with aid recipients and service providers to address issues related to poverty and welfare in the local community. 黑料不打烊 students will be paired with families to learn more about what it’s like to be on public assistance, the challenges that they face, and the ways in which public assistance programs may or may not be effectively meeting their needs.

One of the main goals of the study is to identify pathways of resilience that enable families to gain greater financial self-sufficiency and long-term health and well-being.

This project is an extension of the “Voices of Welfare” project developed between 黑料不打烊’s Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies program (PERCS) and community partners in Alamance County. Information about the Voices of Welfare project can be found online at: blogs.elon.edu/voicesofwelfare.

Based on her ethnographic research in a surfing community of North Carolina, Bush illustrates the ways in which gendered identity, space and performance intersect in women’s portrayals of surfing and self-identity. Her work makes an important contribution to the study of sport, gender identity and communications theory.

Bush’s study won the Best Paper Award at the International Organization of Social Sciences and Behavioral Research Conference in 2013. Bush will also present her study at a faculty poster session at 黑料不打烊’s SURF conference on April 28, 2015.

A link to the article abstract may be found:

Her presentation, “Milk Sharing: Is it Worth the Risk?”, provided an overview of some of the critical anthropological questions and perspectives surrounding the emergence of Internet facilitated breast milk sharing in the United States. A central focus of the talk was on the social construction of “risk” in milk sharing discourses, comparing perspectives of public health authorities, health care providers, and those engaged in milk sharing practices. 

The Art of Breastfeeding Conference is designed to promote breastfeeding by providing up-to-date information and evidence-based strategies for management of breastfeeding and human lactation. The purpose of the conference is to enhance clinical and leadership knowledge and skills for those working with breastfeeding families.

It is sponsored by Wake Areas Health Education Center (AHEC) in Raleigh, N.C.

We will also have a table at College Coffee on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, with more information about our RAINN Day Event.

Palmquist’s paper, “The hands that feed us: rethinking obesity in the context of food security in Hawaii,” was based on ethnographic research conducted in the summer of 2012 with the generous support of a Hultquist Fellowship.

Palmquist was co-organizer of the ASAO session, “Obesity and Health in the Pacific,” with Nancy Pollock (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). This year’s working session had nine participants, all who presented their ethnographic research throughout the region on intersections of culture, food and health.

Her paper, “Got donor milk? Internet-based milk sharing in the U.S.,” was part of a special invited session, “Crossing Safely Into Toddlerhood: An Ecological Perspective on Risks to Infant Care,” sponsored by the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition and Biological Anthropology Section.

Palmquist’s study is based on thematic analysis of Internet posts collected from two prominent online altruistic breast milk sharing sites between April 2011 – October 2012 as well as targeted participant observation of breast milk donation. Her paper demonstrates how online discourses reflect the ways in which those engaged in milk sharing conceptualize and navigate the various risks that are involved, particularly the risk of communicable diseases.

Palmquist has been awarded a 2013 FR&D summer research fellowship, which will support ethnographic inquiry into how information shared within online milk sharing sites translates into everyday milk sharing practices among donors and recipients.

The session featured work by an international group of scholars working on research related to obesity, the body, and health throughout the Pacific Islands. Palmquist presented a paper titled, “Setting and Agenda for Anthropological Research on Childhood Obesity in Hawaii,” which highlights preliminary analysis of interview data on social factors related to child feeding behaviors among low income Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander migrant groups in Hawaii. Palmquist will continue ethnographic research for this project in Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii, this summer.

Other participants presented work related to obesity intervention (N. Pollock, Victoria U of Wellington, NZ), food availability and health choices in Samoa (J. Hardin, Brandeis U.), local food practices, imported food and local perspectives on diet and body shape (T. Mountjoy, U. Bergen), food choices, access to food, and child feeding practices in Vanuatu (C. Wentworth, U. Pittsburgh), critical and biocultural approaches to understanding diabetes in Vanuatu (A. Vaughan, U. Hawaii-Manoa), and Samoans and Tongans living in Hawaii: body image and food (S. Wurtzburg, U. Hawaii-Manoa).

This group, which met last year at the ASAO meeting in Honolulu, plans to reconvene in 2013 as a working session with the goal of developing an edited volume featuring the scholars’ collective works.