Embodiment, Communication, and Health Open (Co-)Lab
The goal of the UA Embodiment, Communication, and Health Open (Co-)Lab for is to think, feel, and experiment together about how to integrate biocultural and linguistic anthropology in specific research projects as well as applied programs in education, healthcare, or community activism.
Supported by a five-year CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to support the development of biolinguistic anthropology at UA, ECHO is the initiative of Dr. Sonya Pritzker. It is envisioned, however, as an open, collaborative, and interdisciplinary effort that invites participation from ALL interested faculty and students--both graduate and undergraduate—from UA and beyond.
We are off for the Fall semester, but weekly talks and events will be posted here beginning in Spring 2022! Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can join the ECHO email list and/or ask questions here: https://universityofalabama.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a4dr6NpChAu5ehD or email Dr. Pritzker at sepritzker@ua.edu
Supported by a five-year CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to support the development of biolinguistic anthropology at UA, ECHO is the initiative of Dr. Sonya Pritzker. It is envisioned, however, as an open, collaborative, and interdisciplinary effort that invites participation from ALL interested faculty and students--both graduate and undergraduate—from UA and beyond.
We are off for the Fall semester, but weekly talks and events will be posted here beginning in Spring 2022! Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can join the ECHO email list and/or ask questions here: https://universityofalabama.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a4dr6NpChAu5ehD or email Dr. Pritzker at sepritzker@ua.edu
ECHO Details
At ECHO, faculty, students, and researchers beyond UA engage in conversations that address some of the following questions:
· What is the role that communication plays in the process by which culture gets “under the skin”?
· How do individuals, who are variably positioned vis-à-vis their own and others’ ideologies of race, gender, and class, “hear” the world in ways that impact emotional, psychological, or physical experience and/or wellbeing?
· How is the world “bodied” by people through and within interactions situated in various institutional, historical, and cultural settings?
· What methods (video recording, psychophysiology, ethography, etc.) can be used by differently positioned researchers, with a range of expertise and a range of access to resources, to study these processes?
· How can we structure our research in ways that support social justice in various settings?
· What can the integration of biocultural and linguistic anthropology contribute to the discipline of anthropology?
· How might the integration of biocultural and linguistic anthropology participate in the decolonization of the discipline?
Activities include:
· Talking about specific ongoing student and faculty research projects (e.g., sharing ideas for projects, sharing works in progress, hosting data sessions where we analyze data together, or practicing conference presentations)
· Reading and discussing relevant publications in biocultural/linguistic anthropology and other relevant fields (e.g., Communication Studies, Gender and Race Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Public Health, Medicine, Performance Studies, Social Justice and Activism, and others)
· Discussing and trying out new devices for gathering data through video-recording, psychophysiology, online/remote data collection, etc.
· Hosting guest speakers from anthropology and beyond
At ECHO, faculty, students, and researchers beyond UA engage in conversations that address some of the following questions:
· What is the role that communication plays in the process by which culture gets “under the skin”?
· How do individuals, who are variably positioned vis-à-vis their own and others’ ideologies of race, gender, and class, “hear” the world in ways that impact emotional, psychological, or physical experience and/or wellbeing?
· How is the world “bodied” by people through and within interactions situated in various institutional, historical, and cultural settings?
· What methods (video recording, psychophysiology, ethography, etc.) can be used by differently positioned researchers, with a range of expertise and a range of access to resources, to study these processes?
· How can we structure our research in ways that support social justice in various settings?
· What can the integration of biocultural and linguistic anthropology contribute to the discipline of anthropology?
· How might the integration of biocultural and linguistic anthropology participate in the decolonization of the discipline?
Activities include:
· Talking about specific ongoing student and faculty research projects (e.g., sharing ideas for projects, sharing works in progress, hosting data sessions where we analyze data together, or practicing conference presentations)
· Reading and discussing relevant publications in biocultural/linguistic anthropology and other relevant fields (e.g., Communication Studies, Gender and Race Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Public Health, Medicine, Performance Studies, Social Justice and Activism, and others)
· Discussing and trying out new devices for gathering data through video-recording, psychophysiology, online/remote data collection, etc.
· Hosting guest speakers from anthropology and beyond
ECHO Terminology
· “Communication”: includes words, both spoken and written, both on and off-line, as well as gesture, gaze, tone, posture, and the ways in which people communicate through everyday objects.
· “Embodiment”: includes the ways in which people experience their emotional/physical bodies, as well as externally measured physiological processes (e.g., stress levels, breathing, heart-rate, etc.).
· “Health”: refers to physical, emotional, psychological and social well-being as experienced by individuals, couples, and groups as well as dominant and non-dominant ideologies and practices related to health and healthcare.
· “Open”: refers to the structure of the lab as an open meeting, available to anyone interested, that prioritizes student voices and concerns and is organized so as to support creative and collaborative engagement with ideas, methods, and questions, no matter how big or small.
· “Communication”: includes words, both spoken and written, both on and off-line, as well as gesture, gaze, tone, posture, and the ways in which people communicate through everyday objects.
· “Embodiment”: includes the ways in which people experience their emotional/physical bodies, as well as externally measured physiological processes (e.g., stress levels, breathing, heart-rate, etc.).
· “Health”: refers to physical, emotional, psychological and social well-being as experienced by individuals, couples, and groups as well as dominant and non-dominant ideologies and practices related to health and healthcare.
· “Open”: refers to the structure of the lab as an open meeting, available to anyone interested, that prioritizes student voices and concerns and is organized so as to support creative and collaborative engagement with ideas, methods, and questions, no matter how big or small.
Interested? Have Questions?
Join the ECHO email list and ask questions here: https://universityofalabama.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a4dr6NpChAu5ehD
Join the ECHO email list and ask questions here: https://universityofalabama.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a4dr6NpChAu5ehD
- *If you are a student and know that you would like to sign up for credit, please indicate this on the linked form and/or email Sonya Pritzker at sepritzker@ua.edu
