Poster Abstracts

A-B-C-D-E   |   F-G-H-I-J   |   K-L-M-N-O   |   P-Q-R-S-T   |   U-V-W-X-Y-Z

FILIPPONE, Rachel, ASHOK KUMAR, Rinku, HERRERA, Victor, and FOSBINDER, Emma (U Arizona) Exploring Transitions to Adulthood for Young Adults with Disabilities. This is a multi-year ethnographic research partnership between the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona and various school districts in Southern Arizona. The primary goal of the project is to understand how disabled high school students and their families experience the state-provided services intended to assist their transition out of high school and into adulthood. The poster captures findings from initial exploratory interviews with people involved in disability services as well as secondary research. This research will ultimately contribute to an improved understanding of the effectiveness of various aspects of transitional programs for young adults with disabilities. (TH-131) 

FOLDVARY, Alexis (U Puget Sound) Imagined Chinatowns: Western Versus Asian Perceptions and Experiences of Chinatown. While Asians have, largely, assimilated and are seen as the “model minority,” there are significant aspects which Westerners are unaware of. This research focuses on the Chinese experience, utilizing first-hand observations of Seattle’s and Amsterdam’s Chinatowns and published literature to explore different construals of Chinatown. Westerners see and operate, largely, within a highly simplified, Western imagined Chinatown which fails to acknowledge the substantial diversity in the Asian population. Asians, however, construe Chinatown as a place of comfort, familiarity, and belonging. Asians have a unique advantage in which they experience and operate within both the Asian and Western imagined Chinatown. (TH-131) 

FOY, Abby (U Puget Sound) The English Language in the Gambia: The Intersection between Identity and Economic Opportunities. This research discusses the intersection between the English language, identity and access to economic opportunities in The Gambia. As the official language of The Gambia, English is utilized in business, education, the government and other official spaces. However, local languages are used almost exclusively in all other social spheres. In order to understand this relationship, interviews were conducted in the Greater Banjul Area as a means to understand the connection between employment and personal relationships with languages. This research is intended to contribute to the debate as to whether English is a form of imperialism or a product of globalization. afoy@pugetsound.edu (TH-131) 

GEBBIA, Erica (Bloomsburg U) Conceptualizing Space and Place: Ethnographic Accounts of a Cross-Country Cycling Voyage. This past summer, I completed a cross-country cycling trip with Bike & Build, a non-profit organization. Through the action of transient mobility, my team and I visited eleven states in just seventy-seven days. Through ethnographic research, including surveying and interviewing, I compared the embodied meanings of the various geographical locations we visited through the lens of my teammates. The intent of this research is to reconcile divergent theoretical perspectives pertaining to space and place in anthropological literature and consider how they can operate synergistically. elg57722@huskies.bloomu.edu (TH-131) 

GILBERT, Tara (Baylor U) Cultivating Climate Adaptation: Factors Influencing Responses of Texas Farmers to Climate Change. Corn and wheat production are critical for both human consumption and livestock production. Climate change projections indicate reductions in U.S. wheat yields by 19% and corn by 8% by 2100 (USEPA 2015). With 98.5% of Texas agricultural operations run by family farms, understanding how norms, values, and knowledge influence a farmer’s decision-making are critical to determining projections for long-term productivity. This research identifies demographic factors that influence farmers’ understanding of climate change; evaluates farmers’ perceptions of climate risks relative to farming experience and scale of operation; and assesses how farmers’ worldviews could be affecting mitigation measures adopted relative to recent weather patterns. tara_gilbert@baylor.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

GILLIAM, Maya (U Puget Sound) Resurgence and Revitalization: Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiatives in the Puget Sound Region. Global food sovereignty movements are growing in importance in the 21st Century. In the United States, indigenous communities often use these movements to rebuild connections to their traditional food sources and revitalize the culture surrounding these sources. This movement is especially active in the Puget Sound region, home to twenty coastal Salish tribal nations, many of which are currently engaged in developing and implementing programs to promote their connections to traditional foodways. This research explores some of the ways in which these indigenous communities use foodways to assert tribal sovereignty and reconnect with cultural traditions in the contemporary era. mgilliam@pugetsound.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

GRONDA, Faith (CSBSJU) Revitalizing Native Seeds: Dream of Wild Health’s Mission to Reconnect Native Youth to Cultural Traditions through Agriculture. What role can indigenous seeds play in revitalizing Native American cultures? During the Summer of 2019, I served as an intern for Dream of Wild Health, a native non-profit that connects urban native youth to their cultural traditions through indigenous farming. I was part of a team that worked directly with growing and caring for native varieties of seeds to keep them sacred and available for our future generations. This poster explores the great importance of native seeds and shares what knowledge we have gained through our work. fgronda001@csbsju.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

GUSTKE, Abigail (U Puget Sound) Forming Community and Identity through Gastronomy: Exploring the Social Meanings Associated with the Production and Consumption of Street Food in America. Food is situated within the intersections of various sociological interactions among people and their environment, thus enabling it to act as a vehicle for human ideas, symbols and social actions of meaning making surrounding identity, class etc. This poster provides an account for these meaning making processes within the relatively underexplored and currently trending cultural and gastronomic arena of street food in the United States. Using a variety of ethnographic methods and quantitative data gathering, this research explores how human interactions with food and food spaces shape communities, production and consumption habits, and notions of authenticity in relation to food. agustke@pugetsound.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

GUTKIN, Alana (U Puget Sound) Ethnographic Assessment of Elderly Immigrants’ Experiences. This study investigates the ways in which elderly immigrants create social networks and use those networks to integrate into US society. Usually when immigration is studied we talk about young able bodied people who are able to create networks and integrate themselves into the host country. Elderly people have a harder time creating social networks and are susceptible to ageism in the US. Therefore, this study investigates the ways in which older people integrate themselves as well as deal with being an older person and an immigrant in the United States. This study uses qualitative data consisting of 15 interviews with elderly migrants. agutkin@pugetsound.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

HAM, Jessica and GIBSON, Alaina (Emory U) From a Sickness of the Head to a Sickness of the Heart?: Exploring the Nexus of Perceived and Biological Stress in Rural Ghana. This poster explores gendered differences in the potential relationship between perceived and biological stress in Upper West Ghana. We draw upon 22 months of mixed methods fieldwork in two neighboring subsistence villages to explore how perceived stress (colloquially referred to as “worry” and measured with an adapted version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist) influences biological stress (measured via blood pressure). We hypothesize that we will find a negative relationship between these experiences—that higher levels of worry will negatively correlate with elevated blood pressure measurements and that the least remunerative livelihood (charcoal production) will predict the worst health outcomes. jessica.ham@emory.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

HENSLEY, Samantha (WVU) Cultural Perceptions of Child and Adolescent Farm Labor: An Appalachian Case-Study. This study examines child and adolescent labor in agriculture and its effects on the perceptions of farm work among members of farm families. Much of the anthropological literature on child and adolescent farm labor in the United States focuses on (im)migrant populations. What is less understood is the perception of white, farm owner/operators. The purpose of this research is to explore cultural perceptions of agricultural work learned through the experience of working on the family farm during childhood. This research explores perceptions through ethnographic interview and examines the cultural distinction between farm labor and farm chores using free-listing and pile-sorting. (TH-131)

HORTON, Emily Y. (UGA) and FORTES CARVALHO-NETA, Raimunda Nonata (U Estadual do Maranhão) Scalar Challenges and Valuing Localized Knowledge in Co-management of Fisheries in a Brazilian Marine Extractive Reserve. Scalar mismatches in fisheries co-management can be caused by the marginalization of Localized Ecological Knowledge (LEK) and result in decreased wellbeing and mismanaged resources. This research examines a seasonal fishing ban in a Brazilian Marine Extractive Reserve (MER) that communities say is temporally mismatched with socioecological dynamics. Employing mixed methods, it asks how the ban period overlaps with the ecological patterns of important species and peak shrimp-harvest months. Findings lend support to communities’ long-standing assessments that the ban is misaligned with fish dynamics and livelihood activities. Valuing LEK can promote scalar alignment and support MER’s sustainable fishery and livelihood objectives. eyhorton@uga.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

HUFF, Ashley (Bloomsburg U) Why Anthropology? Through ethnographic research, including cyber-surveying, video interviewing, and participant observation, I am investigating why undergraduate students today, choose anthropology as their major. Through an attempted total sample of all enrolled undergraduate Anthropology majors in the United States, I am exploring how, why, and when undergraduates declare Anthropology as their major. I ask if there are social and educational experiences, personality traits, and aspects of identity that attract students to Anthropology, with the hopes of better understanding our shared academic community and developing a student profile that can help departments identify and recruit new students. alh26902@huskies.bloomu.edu (TH-131)​​​​​​​ 

JORDAN, Mandy (UNT) Community Engagement Post-Santa Fe High School Shooting: A Look at the Community’s Alternative Therapy Needs. May 18, 2018, Santa Fe, Texas experienced an unimaginable tragedy when a gunman entered the High School killing 10. After, the City opened the Resiliency Center, a place for free mental health assistance and alternative therapy programming. For the Center to ensure inclusiveness, it was necessary to speak with potential service recipients. I conducted a community survey to understand the needs in terms of programs at the Center. 505 responses were received, with more than half coming from those most impacted: High School students. The Center was able to utilize the data provided to grow the Center’s alternative therapy programming. Mandy.M.Jordan@gmail.com (TH-131)