Photo: research team training 2019
My research is located at the intersection of medical, psychological, and linguistic anthropology as well as clinical medicine. In all my work, I strive to unite a detailed, person-centered focus on the everyday personal, social, and communicative experiences of individuals with a broad ethnographic appreciation of the shifting cultural, historical, and political frameworks and ideologies influencing people's everyday lives. I am also interested in work that integrates anthropology, neuroscience, and clinical research in a holistic framework with potential to affect health outcomes in several domains. In general, I am interested in several broad areas, including:
Specific projects have included:
2020-: Emotion, Embodiment and Communication in Everyday Activism (National Science Foundation): This study is focused on understanding how the human body affects and is affected by everyday communication in the context of activist engagement. It is the first phase of a five year project and focuses in particular on the following themes:
2020-: Health Enhancement and the Quest to be Better than Well (UA ORED): Drawing upon existing anthropological research that situates biohacking as a complex social practice, the present study expands current knowledge by focusing on both on- and offline conversations about becoming "better than well" using a range of supplements, practices, and devices in the U.S. and China. Situating the analysis in terms of contemporary socioeconomic and political contexts in the U.S., the research approaches such conversations as “moral laboratories” (Mattingly 2014) within which participants experiment with various ideologies of health, embodiment, and culture, asking how these interactions (1) transform the identities, emotions, and bodies of participants (much like the technologies themselves); and (2) enact, challenge, and transform culturally situated ideologies of gender, health, and power. Deploying the theories and tools of biocultural-linguistic anthropology (Pritzker 2016, Pritzker & DeCaro forthcoming), the objective of this research is thus to investigate the ways in which conversations about the meaning of post/humanism provide a key social site where we can witness the emergence of the human as an encultured being.
2018-: Embodying Emotion in Interaction: A Biocultural-Linguistic Study of Communication and Physiology (National Science Foundation/EPSCoR Senior Research Grant, with Jason DeCaro and Josh Pederson): This interdisciplinary project takes an ethnographic approach to the study of emotion communication among 50 adult partners in the Southeastern U.S., emphasizing naturalistic observation, video-recoding, in-depth interviews, and close monitoring of physiological activity over multiple days. We aim to collect anthropologically sound evidence for the reciprocal ways in which moment-to-moment physiology is affected by and affects emotion communication in everyday life, and how this process impacts indicators of psychosocial wellbeing among partners.
2018-19: Embodying Language in The Context Of Culture: Developing Biocultural-Linguistic Anthropology Through Research On Interaction, Culture, And The Human Body (Wenner-Gren Foundation,Workshop Award, with Jason DeCaro): The workshop, held in May 2019 in Tuscaloosa, brought together American linguistic and biocultural medical anthropologists with European anthropologists, psycholinguists, and cognitive scientists in a focused study of how the human body affects and is affected by everyday communication in the context of culture.
2017-2018: Health Impacts of Emotion Communication in Close Relationships Among Older Adults (UA RGC-2) This project combines methods from biocultural and linguistic anthropology to examine the ways in which emotion communication between partners between the ages of 60 and 75 affect physiological indicators of stress (with Drs. Jason DeCaro and Joshua Pederson)
2014–: The Development of Psychologically Oriented Chinese Medicine (Wenner Gren Foundation Post PhD Grant) This project is an ethnographic study examining the emergence of hybrid Chinese medical psychologies that integrate clinical psychology, psychiatry, and New Age spirituality in the creation of theories and practices that promote healing through increased self-awareness and expression in contemporary China.
2013–2015: Feasibility and Acceptability of an Integrative, Chinese Medicine Diet for Chinese Americans with Type 2 Diabetes (UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP), Asian Health Institute Pilot Grant, Ho, Seligman PIs) The goals of this research are to establish Chinese medical diagnoses for diabetes, establish standards for food recommendations based on those diagnoses, and create a culturally informed diet that includes Chinese medical food recommendations while still being medically and nutritionally sound.
2012-2014: Best Practices in the Translation of Chinese Medicine (UCLA OVCR Transdisciplinary Seed Grant, Heim and Hui Co-PIs) The goal of this research was to develop international guidelines for the translation of Chinese medicine in clinical practice and research.
2007-11: Translation as Everyday Practice in U.S. Chinese Medical Education (funded by U.S. Department of Education, UCLA Graduate Division, and Wenner-Gren Foundation, Pritzker PI): 24 months ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, video-recording of classes, and ongoing interviews with students and faculty in a Southern California school of Chinese medicine, as well as several years of international fieldwork in Beijing and throughout the U.S., attending conferences and conducting interviews with translators.
2003-06: The Experience and Treatment of Mood Disorder in China (funded by the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Student Fellowship): 12 months ethnographic fieldwork in various psychiatric hospitals and clinics in Beijing, China, including semi-structured interviews with doctors, students, and patients of combined Chinese-Western medicine, Western medicine, and Chinese medicine.
2002: Chinese Medical Treatment for Depression: Comprehensive literature review focusing on American, Chinese, and Europoean clinical studies examining acupuncture and herbal medical treatment of depression.
1995-97: Counseling Psychology in Modern Mainland China: 12 months of fieldwork in Beijing, China, including interviews with psychologists, educators, clients, and citizens regarding coping strategies and attitudes towards counseling psychology.
My research is located at the intersection of medical, psychological, and linguistic anthropology as well as clinical medicine. In all my work, I strive to unite a detailed, person-centered focus on the everyday personal, social, and communicative experiences of individuals with a broad ethnographic appreciation of the shifting cultural, historical, and political frameworks and ideologies influencing people's everyday lives. I am also interested in work that integrates anthropology, neuroscience, and clinical research in a holistic framework with potential to affect health outcomes in several domains. In general, I am interested in several broad areas, including:
- embodied social justice
- language, emotion, and the body
- intimacy, self-development, social action and cultural change in China
- translation in Chinese medicine
- methodology in integrative medicine research
- the globalization of Chinese medicine
- the development of integrative medicine in the U.S. and China
Specific projects have included:
2020-: Emotion, Embodiment and Communication in Everyday Activism (National Science Foundation): This study is focused on understanding how the human body affects and is affected by everyday communication in the context of activist engagement. It is the first phase of a five year project and focuses in particular on the following themes:
- The everyday emotional experience of engaging in activism at various scales.
- The ways in which individuals and groups of activists engage in embodied practices, such as dance, meditation, or yoga, in order to cultivate, support, or promote their engagement.
- The ways in which engagement in activism is affected by relationships with partners, family, and friends;
- Individual or organizational perspectives on what long-term ethnographic research on the intersection of emotion, embodiment, and communication might contribute to the everyday work of activism.
2020-: Health Enhancement and the Quest to be Better than Well (UA ORED): Drawing upon existing anthropological research that situates biohacking as a complex social practice, the present study expands current knowledge by focusing on both on- and offline conversations about becoming "better than well" using a range of supplements, practices, and devices in the U.S. and China. Situating the analysis in terms of contemporary socioeconomic and political contexts in the U.S., the research approaches such conversations as “moral laboratories” (Mattingly 2014) within which participants experiment with various ideologies of health, embodiment, and culture, asking how these interactions (1) transform the identities, emotions, and bodies of participants (much like the technologies themselves); and (2) enact, challenge, and transform culturally situated ideologies of gender, health, and power. Deploying the theories and tools of biocultural-linguistic anthropology (Pritzker 2016, Pritzker & DeCaro forthcoming), the objective of this research is thus to investigate the ways in which conversations about the meaning of post/humanism provide a key social site where we can witness the emergence of the human as an encultured being.
2018-: Embodying Emotion in Interaction: A Biocultural-Linguistic Study of Communication and Physiology (National Science Foundation/EPSCoR Senior Research Grant, with Jason DeCaro and Josh Pederson): This interdisciplinary project takes an ethnographic approach to the study of emotion communication among 50 adult partners in the Southeastern U.S., emphasizing naturalistic observation, video-recoding, in-depth interviews, and close monitoring of physiological activity over multiple days. We aim to collect anthropologically sound evidence for the reciprocal ways in which moment-to-moment physiology is affected by and affects emotion communication in everyday life, and how this process impacts indicators of psychosocial wellbeing among partners.
2018-19: Embodying Language in The Context Of Culture: Developing Biocultural-Linguistic Anthropology Through Research On Interaction, Culture, And The Human Body (Wenner-Gren Foundation,Workshop Award, with Jason DeCaro): The workshop, held in May 2019 in Tuscaloosa, brought together American linguistic and biocultural medical anthropologists with European anthropologists, psycholinguists, and cognitive scientists in a focused study of how the human body affects and is affected by everyday communication in the context of culture.
2017-2018: Health Impacts of Emotion Communication in Close Relationships Among Older Adults (UA RGC-2) This project combines methods from biocultural and linguistic anthropology to examine the ways in which emotion communication between partners between the ages of 60 and 75 affect physiological indicators of stress (with Drs. Jason DeCaro and Joshua Pederson)
2014–: The Development of Psychologically Oriented Chinese Medicine (Wenner Gren Foundation Post PhD Grant) This project is an ethnographic study examining the emergence of hybrid Chinese medical psychologies that integrate clinical psychology, psychiatry, and New Age spirituality in the creation of theories and practices that promote healing through increased self-awareness and expression in contemporary China.
2013–2015: Feasibility and Acceptability of an Integrative, Chinese Medicine Diet for Chinese Americans with Type 2 Diabetes (UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP), Asian Health Institute Pilot Grant, Ho, Seligman PIs) The goals of this research are to establish Chinese medical diagnoses for diabetes, establish standards for food recommendations based on those diagnoses, and create a culturally informed diet that includes Chinese medical food recommendations while still being medically and nutritionally sound.
2012-2014: Best Practices in the Translation of Chinese Medicine (UCLA OVCR Transdisciplinary Seed Grant, Heim and Hui Co-PIs) The goal of this research was to develop international guidelines for the translation of Chinese medicine in clinical practice and research.
2007-11: Translation as Everyday Practice in U.S. Chinese Medical Education (funded by U.S. Department of Education, UCLA Graduate Division, and Wenner-Gren Foundation, Pritzker PI): 24 months ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, video-recording of classes, and ongoing interviews with students and faculty in a Southern California school of Chinese medicine, as well as several years of international fieldwork in Beijing and throughout the U.S., attending conferences and conducting interviews with translators.
2003-06: The Experience and Treatment of Mood Disorder in China (funded by the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Student Fellowship): 12 months ethnographic fieldwork in various psychiatric hospitals and clinics in Beijing, China, including semi-structured interviews with doctors, students, and patients of combined Chinese-Western medicine, Western medicine, and Chinese medicine.
2002: Chinese Medical Treatment for Depression: Comprehensive literature review focusing on American, Chinese, and Europoean clinical studies examining acupuncture and herbal medical treatment of depression.
1995-97: Counseling Psychology in Modern Mainland China: 12 months of fieldwork in Beijing, China, including interviews with psychologists, educators, clients, and citizens regarding coping strategies and attitudes towards counseling psychology.
