Last time, Member News was posted shortly before the IAGG/GSA meeting in July. And now, our newest round-up arrives just in time for the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting. Without further ado…
Cristina Douglas graduated summa cum laude with her PhD in (Medical) Humanities at the University of Bucharest. Her research, she writes, “examined the myth of immortality as reflected in Romanian advertising (covering the 1850-present period) in relation to medicalisation of old age and dying, new practices of dying, normative and successful ageing in the social sphere of action, and the neoliberal moral values of responsibility towards one’s body (as reflected in the concept of active ageing).” She is now beginning a PhD program in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, where she was awarded the Elphinstone Scholarship. Working with people who have dementia, she will “explore the emergence and negotiation of personhood in the liminal space of living and dying in end-of-life (nursing homes) and palliative care (hospices) facilities in the network created by the interactions between humans (residents, their families, staff members and people associated with therapy animals) and therapy animals. In addition, I will explore related concepts such as choice, compassion, and good death as reflected in both practices, policy documents, and official discourses.” Congratulations, Cristina!
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Denise C. Lewis, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science and affiliate faculty in the Institute for Gerontology at the University of Georgia (UGA) has had quite the summer! She recently was named a Generations Faculty Fellow in the Center for Generational Studies, a research center at the University of South Alabama.
On top of that, she was awarded a $3M grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to UGA’s press release, Lewis and her co-investigators will “engage with Cambodian and Laotian families in Mobile, Ala., to determine how individual, family and community-level strengths and vulnerabilities contribute to community health and how individuals utilize social networks for formal services to respond to environmental stressors and disasters.” See the full press release here. We look forward to hearing how this exciting project develops!
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Janelle Taylor also received positive news over the summer…beyond her role as AAGE’s newest President-Elect! Taylor has received funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for a new study titled “Health Outcomes for Patients with Dementia without Family Caregivers.” This two-year R21 project will be a collaboration between Taylor as PI and colleagues from Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and UW Medicine, Social Work, Anthropology, and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology. Collaborators are Marlaine F. Gray, Eric B. Larson, Paul K. Crane, Elizabeth K. Vig, Stephanie G.B. Wheeler, Ann M. O’Hare, Clara W. Berridge, and Bettina Shell-Duncan. More information on the project is available through the NIH Reporter. Congratulations, Janelle!
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Publications:
Jason Danely (2017) Carer narratives of fatigue and endurance in Japan and England. Subjectivity: Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 411-426.
Dennis Wiedman and Iveris L. Martinez (2017) Organizational Culture Theme Theory and Analysis of Strategic Planning for a New Medical School. Human Organization: Fall 2017, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 264-274.
Plus, the current issue of Anthropology & Aging!
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Hope to see some of you in Washington, DC, at the AAA’s this year. And, please, send me your news — about everything from jobs to grants to projects to programs to publications and everything (to do with aging, that is) in between — at aarontodd11 (at) gmail (dot) com!
