Abstracts:

“Hacia el Buen Convivir: Experiments in ‘Development with Identity’ in the Ecuadorian Amazon”

Christopher Carleton Jarrett

Since the rise of Ecuador’s national indigenous movement in the 1980s, indigenous communities across the country have intensified efforts to design alternative development strategies that more appropriately accommodate their cultural identities. This paper is based on participant observation and interviews in the community of Rukullakta in Ecuador’s Amazonian province of Napo.

It describes three innovative development initiatives that indigenous Kichwa communities have been involved in- intercultural bilingual education, fair trade, and community tourism. I will use these examples to highlight the ways in which Kichwa communities have conceptualized and applied novel approaches to natural resource management and cultural revitalization. While emphasizing local perceptions of development policies, I will describe how globalization has provided opportunities to form transnational alliances that support sustainable land use management and re-valuing of Kichwa cultural identity.

My presentation will address these three examples within the context of the overarching ideology of “development with identity.” I use the term development with identity to refer to efforts to reconcile a desire to preserve cultural heritage with an interest in participating in a global economy.

“No Longer an ‘Indigente’! Democracy, Identity, and Access to Public Health Services in Brazil”

Kimberly Marie Jones

Prior to the implementation of Brazil’s Universal Health Program (SUS) in 1990, Brazilian citizens who did not have insurance or the money to pay for their healthcare were labeled “indigent” and were reliant on charity or patronage to access biomedical services. With Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 and subsequent development of the New Constitution of 1988, health was declared a right of every Brazilian citizen and the responsibility of the state to provide.

This rearranged the patron relationship in Brazil and put into place social democracy as a form of government that would replace the dependent social relations between the middle to upper and lower socio-economic classes in Brazil. Through the analysis and interpretation of oral histories with dozens of health professionals and workers in the public health system in Montes Claros, Brazil, the change in identity from an indigent dependent on patronage to a citizen with the right to make demands is discussed in light of the development of SUS, Sistema Única de Saúde.

This case study demonstrates that social development through empowering citizens to improve their own well-being can not only preserve but promote the dignity of formally oppressed and underserved members of society.

“Turtle Shells, Tourists, and Transnational Oil: An Examination of the Waira Churis Community Tourism Group in the Ecuadorian Amazon”

Christopher Carleton Jarrett

In recent decades, community tourism has been cited as one of the most promising new development strategies for indigenous peoples in the Amazon. By providing community members the opportunity to preserve their local culture and environment while gaining a sustainable income, community tourism allows indigenous groups to pursue socioeconomic development on their own terms.

Based on months of participant observation in the community of Rukullakta in the Ecuadorian Amazon, this paper tells the story of the Waira Churis, a traditional Kichwa music and dance group and, more recently, community tourist destination. I argue that the Waira Churis use cultural performance as both a means of pursuing socioeconomic development and a symbolic strategy of resistance against multinational corporations that seek to extract non-renewable resources such as petroleum from their territories.

I will discuss how the Waira Churis’ commodification of Kichwa aesthetic, linguistic, and musical traditions has allowed them to gain an independent source of income for the community while preserving their cultural identity. I will also discuss how their increased popularity and visibility has amplified their voices of opposition to oil drilling in their community. In this way, I hope to contribute to discussions of indigenous expressive culture by showing how indigenous peoples use art to both preserve and assert their identities in a globalized world.

“Feminist Praxis, Collaborative Projects, and the Art of Anthropology”

Kimberly Marie Jones

As a post-modern, feminist anthropologist I have wrestled with ethical imperatives to deeply consider the politics of representation in developing my networks and standards of practice in my primary foreign field site, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. One of my primary concerns has been to work in collaboration with local academics and health researchers to develop bi-national teams of students and faculty to assure that my projects are informed by local scholars and contribute to the continued development of local educators.

I argue that part of the art of anthropology is the art of building relationships of respect and collegiality in interdisciplinary teams of colleagues of different levels of professional and personal experience that honor the unique contributions and limitations of each member. To provide some examples of such collaborations I will discuss a team oral history project conducted in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil on the origins and development of Brazil’s universal health care system.

Specifically, I will discuss the arts of finding and selecting team members, of encouraging all members of the team to be forthright about their short and long term goals related to the project, and of continuing to connect and engage with the team after returning from the field.  

Paper Abstract:

“Twenty Years of Universal Public Healthcare in Brazil: A Case Study from the Brazilian Sertão”

After two decades of a military government, Brazil re-formed a democratic government in 1985 and passed the New Constitution of 1988. In this document, healthcare was stated as the right of every Brazilian citizen and the responsibility of the state. Consequently, in the early 1990s, a federal plan for socialized medicine, entitled Sistema Unica de Saude (The Unique System of Health), was enacted. Montes Claros is the largest urban center in a agricultural region in the Brazilian sertão and has tripled in size due to rural to urban migration since 1990. In 1991, the State University of Montes Claros proposed to increase access to healthcare in the region by expanding the free training of health care professionals and developing an all-SUS teaching hospital. By providing free hands-on education, providing free healthcare, and training health care providers to serve the needs of rural to urban migrants, the university assisted in enacting public policy. Oral histories of the development of public health care since the advent of SUS in Montes Claros were conducted with dozens of professors and administrators at the university and university hospital and with public health care administrators at the local and state levels. This case study resonates with modern theoretical and practical concerns related to addressing health disparities. Furthermore, the ability of the local public health care system to serve rural to urban migrants serves as an important model of how a public university can be instrumental in addressing public healthcare needs created by urbanization. 

Portions of the ethical code of the American Anthropological Association was referred to as a good basis for developing ethical partnerships in ISL.

The three faculty members also published their research in the article “International Service-Learning: Ethics in Cross-Cultural Partnerships” in Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement.

Julia Roberts, a senior in the Honors Fellows program, presented a paper with four other panelists from the United Stated and Canada in the session. The panelists presented five case studies that reveal how structural barriers limit access to health care for marginalized populations, such as migrant farm workers, rural-to-urban migrants, and immigrants in Canada, the US, and South America.

Roberts and her mentor also attended sessions on the crisis in Haiti, globalization, development, and public health, international programs to prevent and manage HIV+/ AIDS, and Service-Learning and Global Citizenship, and met with regional experts on indigenous development and study abroad in the Yucatan peninsula and health and the drug crisis in Mexico.

Roberts said she was especially excited to have the opportunity to discuss career opportunities and trajectories with professionals in applied work in development and health and really enjoyed having a conversation with the primary author of the text that is currently being used in her course on medical anthropology taught by Jones.

70th Annual Conference of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico 

Session W40: Wednesday, March 23, 2010, 10:00-11:30

Panel Abstract: Migration and Access to Healthcare in the Americas
JONES, Kimberly M. (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ)
kjones14@elon.edu

This panel addresses the ways in which access to healthcare services is affected by the regional and international movement of people, resources, and information. What contrasts exist, in terms of ability to provide information about and treatment for complicated diseases, among healthcare providers in host and sending countries or in rural and urban settings? What parts do structural inequalities and individual agency play in the stories of those for whom movement, such as traveling to a distant clinic or seeking treatment in a foreign setting, is an essential part of managing illness treatment?

New Frontiers: Attending to Immigrant Mental Health Care in Lexington, KY
CAIRO, Aminata (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)
acairo@siue.edu
State Departments are no longer placing refugees in major cities, but instead in smaller towns and rural areas. Though overburdened, major cities have been sites where many resources are available. This paper will describe a project in Lexington, KY, a small city, where supportive infrastructure and especially mental health care services fall short for refugees and Latino migrants. The project involved recruitment and training of refugees and Latino migrants alongside university students. Members were trained with the goal of giving voice to some of the stresses and struggles they encounter in their adjustment to living in the US.

Access to Healthcare: Transient Farm Workers in the Connecticut River Valley
COOK, Jennifer A. (University of New Hampshire)
jaf43@cisunix.unh.edu]

This project examines the lives of migrant farm workers in the Connecticut River Valley, a population which consists mainly of Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and other Central American workers. The focus of this research is on this population’s life-long patterns of labor migration, and the factors which impact their experiences. Through interviews with 17 migrant farm workers, one farm owner, and a Department of Labor representative, in addition to volunteer work with the University of Connecticut’s Migrant Farm Worker Clinics, I found that place of origin is the most influential factor in defining the experiences of Connecticut’s migrant workers.

Not Living on Indian Land: Healthcare Denial and Access in the History of American Indian Labor Migration and in Contemporary Struggles for Tribal Sovereignty in Central California
HOWARD, Heather A. (Michigan State University)
howardh@msu.edu

This paper explores the health and healthcare of Native farm and lumber workers who moved away from federal Indian trust lands in the early twentieth century. These historical experiences are tied to the contemporary struggle by subsequent generations to recover land for tribal gaming in the places where their ancestors worked and suffered. I focus on how these stories are integral to conceptualizations of tribal citizenship and the production of knowledge about Native peoples in the San Joaquin Valley, which includes changing the social determinants of health and improving healthcare for tribal members under the economic freedom promised by gaming.

Between Equity and Exclusion: Healthcare of Transnational Migrant Workers in Canada
MCLAUGHLIN, Janet (University of Guelph)
jmclau03@uoguelph.ca
Tracing the lives of transnational farm workers as they migrate from Mexico and Jamaica to Canada and ‘home’ again, this paper assesses their access to healthcare services across the three countries, focusing on the specific cases of workers who have experienced illness or injury while migrating. I explore the discordance between principles of human rights and healthcare equity for legal migrants, and the reality of their experiences, while assessing the efforts of some groups, including a specialized medical clinic, to fill such gaps.

Access to HIV Testing: Rural to Urban Migration and Public Health in Montes Claros, Brazil
ROBERTS, Julia E. (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ)
jroberts7@elon.edu
This case study evaluates how a public hospital in Montes Claros, Brazil has attempted to reconcile outcome gaps with HIV/AIDS by examining aspects of the demographic profiles of patients receiving HIV exams at two respective sites. In comparison to Centro de Testagem e Aconselhamento (CTA), the Clemente Faria University Hospital (HUCF) served more populations who face inequities in access to HIV services, including women, people from rural areas, and youth (ages 10-16). This case study serves as an example of the need to offer public health care services at diverse sites in order to provide access to target populations.
 

Expanding Access to HIV Testing in Northern Minas Gerais, Brazil

Julia Elinor Roberts, Honors Fellow, ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ, ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ, NC; Kimberly Marie Jones, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology, ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ; Luçandra Ramos Espirito Santos, Professor of Health Sciences, State University of Montes Claros, Brazil (UNIMONTES); Mauro José Guedes Roque, Pharmacist-Biochemist and Microbiology Specialist, Clemente Faria University Hospital; Marise Fagundes Silveira, Biostatistician, UNIMONTES; Amaro Sérgio Marques, Professor of Social Development, UNIMONTES

Abstract
Brazil serves as a potent example of a nation striving to meet the public healthcare needs of a complex and diverse society. To evaluate how a public hospital in Montes Claros, Brazil has attempted to reconcile outcome gaps with HIV/AIDS, this study examined aspects of the demographic profiles of public health clients receiving HIV exams in the largest city in Northern Minas Gerais at two respective sites. In the past five years, HUCF (Clemente Faria University Hospital) has undergone a massive expansion, drastically increasing the services offered and improving the related hospital infrastructure. For example, an Immunology Division was added in 2007, allowing for on-site HIV testing; prior to this, government-funded HIV testing was only available at the sexual health clinic, Centro de Testagem e Aconselhamento (CTA). Age, sex, and residential neighborhood for clients tested for HIV during an eight month period in 2007-2008 at HUCF and CTA were statistically compared. In comparison to CTA, the population served by HUCF included more women, people from rural areas, and youth (ages 10-16). These populations, who face inequities in access to HIV services on the national level in Brazil, were more likely to access testing at the hospital. This case study serves as an example to other municipalities of how it may be necessary to offer public health care services at diverse sites in order to provide access to target populations.
 

The two groups of collaborators met when they had similar sessions on ethics and study abroad at the North Carolina Campus Compact conference in February 2008. The NAFSA panel, “Community Impact of Study Abroad,” took place on the last day of the four-day conference. Appalachian State professors Cynthia Wood (Geography) and Kathleen Schroeder (Economics) discussed the results of focus groups with Study Abroad faculty at their university regarding the impact of study abroad on host communities.

ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ professors discussed the results of open-ended surveys completed by students on the impact of service projects on communities and on their own learning. This survey was also used as the basis for interview guide for face-to-face interviews with community partners (local project facilitators) to determine how the partners perceived the impact of service projects on themselves, the target communities, and the students.

The presentation was enthusiastically attended and the collaborators hope to publish the findings of these projects in the coming year.

The first workshop was for the directors of the Humanitization of the Public Hospitals Program from various municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais. The workshop was held in the Ministry of Public Health in the state capitol, Belo Horizonte, on June 18, 2008, and attended by approximately 75 program directors. Dr. Jones was the featured speaker at the program and gave a presentation on “Medical Anthropology and Public Health: International Exchange for Humanitization.” During her program she explained how concepts from medical anthropology could help guide humanitization efforts and described a project where Service-Learning students from ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ participated in a project where the play area of the public hospital in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais was reformed.

One week later, Dr. Jones was the featured speaker for the 1st Annual Conference on Applied Medical Anthropology, Public Health, and Humanitization of Public Hospitals at the State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES). Students from various health programs, and hospital staff from various municipalities attended the workshop.  The president of the university, vice president of the university, director of the university hospital, municipal minister of health, and the director of the Humanitization Project at the university hospital welcomed Dr. Jones and commemorated her 10+ years of collaboration with UNIMONTES faculty and students during the opening panel. During the morning session, Dr. Jones discussed the articulations between applied medical anthropology and humane health care. In the afternoon, the 100+ audience viewed and discussed “The Warrior Women Workers of the University Hospital”, a film made by Dr. Jones, Fernanda Lima Veloso (MA, UNIMONTES, ’08), and Robin Newton (BA, ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ, ’09).

I am grateful that ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ’s strengths in Service-Learning, Study Abroad, and International Studies provided me with such an enriching experience.
— Michael Patrick (’09)

An Academic Service-Learning Experience

This summer I had the pleasure and joy of being able to participate in the new service learning study abroad program to Brazil that was focused on social development. This course mainly took place in the city of Montes Claros where the group, along with many community members, worked within the community to contribute to the goals of existing organizations as well as working together to leave our mark on the community.
– Lauren LaDuke ‘08

The course consisted of a focus on service learning in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Before we left for the trip we did pre-course work which entailed readings that helped to prepare us for our trip along with language quizes to give us a taste of Portuguese. When we got to Brazil we worked with Instituto Laborearte and Hospital Universitario Clemente de Faria in order to redo the playground in the pediatrics ward of the hospital. Through these interactions we were to become more culturally aware and sensitive.
– Jessica Piazza ‘09

It didn’t take long for the ideas to begin flowing out of all of us. By the end of our time in Montes Claros, our visions for the playground became a reality that all of us had imagined. The fence was stretched, painted, and decorated with our flowers, the walls were fixed and painted into an amazing mural that included a rainbow, sun, a tree of life, and innumerous flowers, all the benches were painted, and the doors were refinished. As for the playground equipment, we painted the swing and fixed the leg, added a merry-go-round, welded wheels and a steering wheel to the concrete tube and painted it like a race car, attached a basketball hoop tone pole, and tied a tether ball to the other.
–Kenda Honeycutt ‘10

Social Development in Theory and Practice: Transformation

Service-learning was the perfect conduit for experiencing social development at its best. Volunteering and learning at the same time has taught me more about myself and what I want out of life than I ever expected. Specifically, I found a speech given by Adrienne at Laborearte to be the keystone to what I got out of my experience. To put it simply, I wanted to be transformed and in turn transform. I loved knowing that I was transforming garbage into art and that the same concept can be applied to life—that humans can change their lives and be reborn.
–Kenda Honeycutt ‘10

I really enjoyed what Anthony said today about the flower coming to life when we were creating it. When you hold the flower up to the flame it really does look like its growing. I think this is a good example of life, when you take chances and break from the norm, you expose yourself to the “flame”, growing and changing in unpredictable and brilliant ways!
–Michael Patrick ‘09

It wasn’t until I studied in Brazil that I realized the magnitude of what social development actually entails. I have come to understand that social development is the combined effort of a country’s government, people, and NGO’s both inside and outside of the country. As Fernanda, one of our lecturers, stated, “social development considers marginalized people” and works to ensure that these individuals are receiving the rights and benefits that they deserve. In addition, it was amazing to see how the concept of social development was being demonstrated by our own service work at the hospital.
–Kenda Honeycutt ‘10

This transformation was absolutely incredible and the joy in the children’s eyes (and actions) was instantaneous and extremely gratifying. Standing in the middle of the finished area, I could feel that this transformation didn’t stop at the physical, outward appearance but continued beyond that. During this project, we developed relationships with everyone who we worked with and who we worked for (such as the kids). The hospital employees came out in full force to help with the painting and the kids in that wing of the hospital were out there everyday with us. Having the kids out there reminded us why we were there and being able to play with them allowed us to develop a connection with them. We learned about their families, their illnesses, and their personalities, that all inspired us to work hard towards our final goal.
–Lauren LaDuke ‘10

Socio-economic Inequalities, Consumerism, and the Human Spirit

I met people in Brazil who worked three jobs, did not own a car and still lived with their family. By American standards this would most likely looked down upon, one might even be embarrassed by their situation, but the Brazilians I met walked around with genuine smiles on their faces, enjoyed the company of others rather than the designer purse they just bought and danced with little inhibition to the melody of three homemade instruments rather than the newest version of the I Pod. This also made me think about myself in the present. Rather than what do I want to be when I grow up, this made me ask myself the question, what do I want to be right now?
– Jessica Piazza ‘09

At the hospital there was a little girl named Luciana. Everyday she and her father would come out to see us. It was inspiring to socialize with a man who was indigenous, had very little money, and spent everyday at the hospital taking care of his sick baby girl and still found the energy and happiness to put a smile on his face. As for Luciana, she is a sick little girl and was always playful and giggling. Instances like this do not make me grateful for my car or my air conditioning, they make me appreciate everything that is intangible and it highlights that luxuries are not necessities.
— Jessica Piazza ‘09

Two of the students and I volunteered at a favela named Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro for two weeks after the completion of the course. There we had the opportunity to pass on what we had been taught to yet another marginalized community. We taught community members how to make the flowers and decorated a classroom in the school that is open and under construction by the NGO. In Rocinha and also in Montes Claros, we worked with a lot of inspirational, driven people. These people are working towards the social development of their communities. They are all extremely different types of people, yet they all have a passion for life and the projects that are underway that it seems the world would be a much darker place without them.

Rogerio and Vivi, from Rocinha, and Amaro, Adrienne, Fernanda, from Montes Claros, among many others, represent the most important lesson that I learned this summer – the thing that has changed my outlook on the world and will stay with me throughout my life. The tireless work they put in to their jobs, whether volunteer (as Fernanda at the HIV+/AIDs Foundation in Montes Claros or Rogerio at Two Brothers) or paid (as Amaro at the University Hospital) and their attitude about life seems different to me than anything I have ever seen before. Somehow, it is not exactly passion for the job they do, but rather love for the people they help. Brazilian culture is far less materialistic than the United States, and people visibly care more about each other than any material part of life.
–Samantha Stone ‘10

Feeling Empowered By Making a Difference

I know that this program not only made a difference in my life and those of other ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ students, but it also made a difference to the people of Montes Claros we came in contact with. Not only did we help others, but it also allowed us to unwillingly build close friendships with the people we met there. I now believe that the smallest efforts can make the biggest impacts. And it is more important for me to be happy in my career as opposed to making more money. I know I want to make a difference to people who may feel that they have been forgotten or will remember my aid or my organized efforts for years to come.
–Armella Crabbe Gilbert ‘08

I saw countless examples of what individuals and small groups can do for a country and its people while I was in Brazil. A social movement is waving over the country and lives are changing. I was lucky enough to be a small part of this change and see what my two hands can do. Although I am still on a path to finding where I can be most beneficial and be most satisfied in my future, traveling to Brazil truly gave me the spark to light up a passion for human service and global issues that I never knew existed.
–Ellen Davies ‘10

There is not, as you might imagine, a simple one-step process for eradicating poverty. But there is, as I came to find out on this trip, a simple way to begin dealing with it. Laborearte was taking that first step by simply showing at-risk youth that they could be a part of something positive. The idea is to give them hope, and keep them away from criminal activity. And the key to that is to look after our children. All of them. It really is not that difficult to do either; you just have to show them that you care. Just take a little time and show them how to make some plastic flowers.
–Anthony Warren ‘08

Adrienne (our community partner at Laborearte) said our project planted a seed. She told us that people would take notice of our project and continue to turn rubbish into something positive. Adrienne also told us we would be inspiring other people, and we probably did, but by carrying out our project we were inspiring ourselves, we planted more than just one seed. At the finish of our project, we wanted to add a part of ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ to our mural. We painted acorns with our initials written on them in different parts of the mural. The ten of us represented ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ in Brazil, left a symbol of our group behind, and planted individual seeds for ourselves in a place that is very special to all of us. This study abroad program gave us the opportunity to continue growing from an acorn to an oak tree.
— Jessica Piazza ‘09

Tie of Friendship and Human Solidarity

We were not tourists in Brazil, we lived among the people and did work that was meaningful and purpose driven. Our group was determined to use our able bodies and financial resources to make a positive change in the lives of the people around us. Throughout the three weeks that our small but mighty group of nine students spent Montes Claros I was touched and felt personally invested in every project that we participated in and all the amazing Brazilians who taught and led us. Whether we were listening to a lecture on the newly written Brazilian constitution or just talking with patients at the University Hospital, I continually found myself questioning and altering my own opinions and values, including those I had formed about my country and its government.
–Ellen Davies ‘10

Looking back on the experience I would have to say I took more away from the people of Brazil than anything else. They taught me a great deal about life and inspired me to live a more meaningful life. From the first day of the trip to the last I can remember saying how much I loved Brazilians. I have never felt so welcomed in a foreign country. They are by far the kindest, most accepting, and most beautiful people I have ever met.
– Michael Patrick ‘09

Brazilians know the importance of human relationships and they act on it constantly. From dancing at every opportunity, to transforming trash and lives into beautiful creations, to showing three American kids all over Rio for only the price of his food, Brazilians take care of other people. That quality shines through in every person we got to know and showed me the importance of that kind of love.
— Samantha Stone ‘08

In the end, though, it is always the people that make the country. They are the ones that made my trip unforgettable and they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for my transformation. There are no words imaginable that can explain just how utterly amazing the Brazilian people that I worked with were. Their warmth, generosity, willingness to help, dedication, creativity and passion for their work have inspired me. Without them, my trip would not have been the same and I can honestly say would not have been as fulfilling. From these individuals, I brought back a small piece of every single one of them—Fernanda’s compassion, Flavio’s quirkiness, Washington’s sense of humor, Amaro’s big heart, Rogerio’s dedication, Patrick’s kindness, and Adrienne’s creativity.
— Kenda Honeycutt ‘08

Lessons Learned

Looking back, I feel like almost everything we did at Laborearte had some kind of meaning behind it. The basic trash to something beautiful is one of many. If people are thought of as worthless then they will have no chance of growing, but if you are willing to take a chance and try to make something good out of them, you could be surprised with something remarkable. I like how you can also take this same meaning and turn it towards yourself. If you don’t take chances in your own life and push for change then you will never give yourself the chance to grow.
– Kenda Honeycutt ‘08

Anne Bolin is a full professor of Anthropology. Lisa Marie Peloquin is an assistant professor of Sociology. Drs. Bolin and Peloquin are co-leaders of the Aboriginal Australia study abroad course offered by the department each Winter term. Kim Jones is an assistant professor of anthropology and co-leads a Winter term program (2007, 2008) entitled Brazil in the Third Millennium and will be leading a Service-Learning Abroad Summer Program entitled Social Development in Brazil (2008).

Lindsay Westerfield (’07) is an International Studies/ Spanish major. Lindsay’s work was supported through the Honor’s Fellows Program. She is one of the students in the first class of Honor’s students, who will be graduating this semester. Her mentor is Kim Jones (Anthropology)

Robin Newton (’07) is a Broadcast Communications major. The research she presented was supported through a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) award through the Undergraduate Research Office in 2006. Her mentor is Kim Jones (Anthropology).

Interesting ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ Connections:

The subject of this year’s common reading, Paul Farmer (Harvard U/ Partners in Health), presented a paper entitled Landmine Boy: Medicine and Public Health in Violent Times at the conference on Thursday afternoon panel focusing on Global Health in a Time of Violence.

Cassandra White, Assistant professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, who presented with the ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ professors and one of the students during the International Education panel, visited ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ last semester as a panelist on the Medical Anthropology in the Age of Paul Farmer panel held in Whitley auditorium on October 2, 2006.

Society for Applied Anthropology 67th Annual Meeting
Hyatt Regency Tampa
March 27-31, 2007

Session: Saturday, March 31, 10:00- 11:45 a.m.

Panel Title: International Education: Distinguishing Study Abroad from Tourism

Panel co-sponsored by SUNTA (The Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology)

Panel Abstract:
JONES, Kimberly Marie (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ). What are the similarities and
differences between learning about cultures through tourism and study
abroad? How can goals such as maintaining academic content, improving
cultural awareness, and providing opportunities for personal growth be
met while managing the experience of being guests in a hosting
community? What experiential or otherwise engaged pedagogies enrich
student learning in traveling programs? What needs to be done before
and after experiential learning “in the field” to assure adequate
preparation and reflection? A panel of study abroad faculty and
students will respond to these questions based on their original
research and personal experiences of study abroad.

Key words: study abroad, tourism, experiential learning

Paper Abstracts:

PELOQUIN, Lisa Marie (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ) and BOLIN, Anne (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ
University), Spearchuckers in Seersuckers: The Nexus of Tourism and
International Studies.

The social realities of higher education are increasingly penetrated by
the logic and culture of capitalist accumulation. Participants within
study abroad programs simultaneously enact performances of
“scholar-consumers” of knowledge and “tourist consumers” of experience.
In contrast to the vision of university life as a secular space devoted
to the “free” exchange of ideas and production of knowledge, study
abroad initiatives provide a powerful aperature to explore the
complexities of teaching and learning within commodified fields of
information, culture and subjectivity. In this paper, the authors
evaluate how student learning within Aboriginal Australian-owned
educational programs problematizes their grasp of nature/culture,
self/other and international studies/tourism.

WHITE, Cassandra (Georgia State University), When is a gringo not a
tourist in the favela?: Dilemmas of study abroad in urban Brazil.

JONES, Kimberly Marie (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ), Experiential Pedagogies in Study Abroad.

Can study abroad to developing nations help North American students
conceptualize issues related to development and socio-economic
stratification in the global context? To assess the effect of study
abroad in the developing world with and without service, students were
asked to respond, before and after two abroad courses, to five
questions designed to probe their awareness of development issues and
their sense of global responsibility. Mixed method analyses of before
and after student responses were used to assess student learning. The
learning experiences in two diverse programs, without service (Brazil)
and with service (Guatemala), are compared.

WESTERFIELD, Lindsay (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ), Cross-cultural knowledge of
university students in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Central North
Carolina .

How do experiences with other cultures affect the stereotypes and
cross-cultural knowledge of today’s university students? This
comparative study, conducted at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ and Universidad
Torcuato di Tella, analyzes participants’ travel, language, social, and
academic experiences to reveal patterns in their beliefs about the
other country and its culture. Ten recorded and transcribed interviews
and one hundred surveys from each location were analyzed and
contextualized in the literature from similar studies in the United
States and Argentina. Finally, this information is used to highlight
experiences that might facilitate the growth of positive relations
between cultures.

Session: Saturday, March 31, 3:30-5:20 p.m.

NEWTON, Robin (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ U) The Struggles of Female Workers in Brazil
During the summer of 2005, a bi-national team of researchers conducted
an ethnographic study of women workers in a public university hospital
in the interior of Brazil. Through an inductive analysis of filmed
interviews with five female hospital workers, the following themes
emerged: working mothers face enormous challenges in balancing their
household and workplace responsibilities, males and females have
different work roles in the hospital, and women are considered to be
particularly well-suited for work in healthcare. The film documents
this collaborative project, reveals the everyday struggles of women
workers, and presents recommendations for improving work conditions for
female employees.

Other Panel Title:
Student Ethnic and Racial Identity in the Study Abroad Experience

CHAIR: WHITE, Cassandra (Georgia State) Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology.
Discussant: JONES, Kimberly Marie (ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ U)
North American university and college study abroad programs are
attracting an increasingly diverse population of students. Many study
abroad offices are actively engaged in recruiting students from
traditionally underrepresented groups. Panelists will address the ways
in which ethnic background, racial identity, andphenotype of study
abroad participants may play a part in the decision to study abroad,
the choice of study abroad programs, the experiences of
students during the foreign study experience. Original research and
personal experiences of study abroad students and program directors
will be highlighted in this panel.

Dr. Kim Jones (Department of Sociology and Anthropology) and Drew Nelson (’08) presented their research on aging and communication at the 6th Annual Conference of the Association for Aging and Gerontology held at Pennsylvania State University March 16-18. Dr. Jones presented a paper entitled “Speaking Like Them: Pragmatics in Cross-Cultural Aging Research”. Drew presented a paper entitled “Elder-talk: Communication in a Community of Aging”. Sarah Panjian (’08) was scheduled to present, but was unable to attend due to harsh weather conditions (snowstorm). However, her paper “Women, Aging, and Poetry” was distributed to session attendees at the conference.

Drew and Sarah conducted their projects as part of a required course in qualitative methods offered by the Sociology and Anthropology department. They had participated in service-learning research at a local assisted living community as part of the course. Drew received a travel grant from the Undergraduate Research Office to support his participation in the conference.

Abstracts are below, and a photo of Drew’s presentation with Dr. Jones looking on is attached.

Speaking Like Them: Pragmatics in Cross-Cultural Aging Research
Kimberly Jones, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

While learning foreign languages is often considered of great importance to anthropological investigations, dialectic modifications of speech patterns have been emphasized less in the literature on ethnographic fieldwork. During the summer of 2003, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nineteen ethnically diverse elders who attended a senior center in Queens, NYC. These interviews were conducted after two years of participant observation, during which time I supervised various student projects in this community. The purpose of this study was to deepen the exploration of how clients had come to use the center and their motives for continuing to utilize the services offered. However, in reviewing the tapes and transcripts of these interviews, it became obvious to me that I had modified my personal communication style during these interviews as a means of relating to the study participants. This tangential finding is of interest to the study of pragmatics in qualitative research, especially in inter-generational studies of ethnically diverse communities. In this presentation, communicative styles between researchers and the researched will be explored as a special kind of dialogue. The implications of adapting to the communicative style of participants will be discussed as a means by which investigators gain rapport and trust. In this study, modification of speaking style seemed to be a valuable way to help break down cultural and generational barriers to authentic communication. By gaining awareness of how “speaking like them” affects the relationship between investigators and elderly research participants, we can further illuminate the strengths of ethnographic approaches to understanding communities of aging.

Elder-talk: Communication in a Community of Aging
Emery (Drew) Nelson (History and Sociology, ’08)
Faculty mentor: Kimberly Jones, Anthropology

Throughout the course of human life communication plays a significant role in learning and interacting with others. However, during the various stages of life, people may communicate in unique ways. Ways of expressing oneself can be effected by various life experiences and the generational and intergenerational norms in a given culture. Over the course of ten weeks I conducted participant observation in a community of aging. After several weeks of familiarizing myself with this environment and the elders residing in an assisted living facility in Central North Carolina, I began to focus my observations on the various communicative styles of several senior residents. Particular emphasis was given to how communication in the facility affects and is affected by the process of aging. Due to physical and cognitive limitations associated with illnesses that accompany the aging process, particularly hearing difficulties and dementia, loss of communicative abilities was notable in this population. However, there was also a great deal of variation between the communicative skills of various participants in this study. These observations, regarding loss of communication, are consistent with previous studies regarding the issue of communication and aging. In order for volunteers, staff members, and family members to successfully interact with members of this population and similar populations, it is important for them to be aware of individual capacities and limitations that elders experience in their ability to communicate.

Women, Aging, and Poetry
Sarah Panjian (English/Sociology, ’08)
Faculty mentor: Kimberly Jones, Anthropology

Literary works are often seen as a means to define a culture or era, a system of values or beliefs. On an individual level, they may be used to record thoughts, memorable life events, or fictional plots. Naturally, not all poems, short stories, and novels are unveiled to the masses, yet, despite a lack of public recognition, these works may serve another purpose – as personal memoirs to their aging authors. Where the institutionalization of the elderly lends itself to the loss of personal identity, an individual’s literary works can be used to catalog one’s greatest achievements and prompt the recollection of life’s most memorable moments. Loss of memory erases many of the influential people and events of an elderly individual’s life; lack of mobility and vision deficits further restrain residents from accessing journals, notecards, and writings from their past. Various interviews and casual encounters in an assisted-living facility led to an in-depth study of one resident in particular, whose poetry narrates her life where her memory cannot. The verses found in a once misplaced notebook have reunited this sometimes-forgetful 94 year-old women with the faces and events of her past. The reflections and background information delved from reading her poetry aloud will ultimately be part of a video ethnography, which, along with this paper, will examine the use of personal literature as a conduit to one’s past, keeping in mind the changing role of women throughout the subject’s lifetime. Helping the elderly to organize and archive their works is an often overlooked aspect of service-learning; this paper will discuss the methods most effective in preserving memory through the literary works of the elderly.