The SfAA Podcast Archive

Scaling Ethnography for Policy and Practice: What Works and Lessons Learned: Part II

CHAIR: MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI)
SINGH PUNI, Tirath and MILLER, Christine (SCAD) Breaking Barriers: Applying Ethnographic Tools and Service Design to Integrate Community-Based Research in Medical Education
HERMANNS, Kwela (SCAD) and GAGE, Marty (Lextant) What Industry and Education Really Want: Lextant & SCAD Partnership on User-Centered Design Research Training
MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI) Towards a Method for Scaling Ethnography by Integrating Anthropology and Engineering
DISCUSSANT: EDBERG, Mark (GWU)
 
For centuries ethnography has offered insights into culture, human behavior, language, social systems, and technology. Yet, they have often encountered barriers in translating their findings into policy and practice. In contrast, other disciplines (engineering and medicine) have proven methods for moving know-how into practice. Here the transfer of ethnographic findings into practice will be treated as a problem of scaling to practice, i.e., showing what applies to one or a few may also apply to many. Participants will report lessons learned and what works from their direct experience in scaling ethnography for business, education, public health, and product development.
 
SINGH PUNI, Tirath and MILLER, Christine (SCAD) Breaking Barriers: Applying Ethnographic Tools and Service Design to Integrate Community-Based Research in Medical Education. This study examines how ethnographic tools, applied through the lens of Service Design, can assist the medical school leadership of a satellite campus of a state university medical school to redesign their curriculum to incorporate community-based participatory research (CBR). By using mixed methods approaches such as contextual interviews, surveys, and co-creation workshops combined with journey mapping and blueprinting, the leadership can develop actionable strategies to integrate community research, fostering a deeper connection between academic structures and community needs. This approach highlights the potential for scaling ethnographic insights to reform curricula and educational institutions training future medical doctors.
 
HERMANNS, Kwela (SCAD) and GAGE, Marty (Lextant) What Industry and Education Really Want: Lextant & SCAD Partnership on User-Centered Design Research Training. A collaboration between SCAD and Lextant resulted in 1) curriculum re-designs to reflect actionable research and analysis approaches developed by Lextant in-house, 2) the creation of a textbook and 3) a stand-alone Certification in Design Research & Insight Translation for students. The session proposal falls into the panel’s focus on Educational Policy and Practice: Scaling ethnographic insights. The collaboration included shadowing and on-site participatory co-creation. The resulting curriculum redesign enables students to contribute to real-world problem solving in diverse sectors. This large-scale learning intervention constitutes a unique education / industry partnership within the US.
 
MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI) Towards a Method for Scaling Ethnography by Integrating Anthropology and Engineering. Here the author will identify recurring themes and assess them through the lenses of applied anthropology, praxis theory, and the Engineering Design Process (EDP), i.e., identify a problem, research solutions, pick the optimal solution, build a prototype, test-evaluate, implement pilot solutions, monitor and redesign (as needed), expand what works. Drawing from cognitive anthropology and discourse analysis, the author will evaluate the methods for scaling according to expressivity, precision, accuracy, relevance, endogenous acceptability, exogenous validity, and reduction to practice. He will propose a method for scaling ethnography to policy and practice.
Speakers
Richard Morris, MGI
Kwela Hermanns
Christine Miller, Savannah College of Art and Design, Professor of Design Management
Mark Edberg, George Washington University, Professor

Scaling Ethnography for Policy and Practice: What Works and Lessons Learned: Part I

CHAIR: MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI)
BRUNA, Sean (WWU) An Ethnographic Look Inside a Federal‬‭ Initiative‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
MILLER, Christine Z. and SIGHN PUNI, Tirath (SCAD) Scaling Up: From Small Starts to Big Impacts
TELLIEL, Yunus Doğan (WPI) Translational Anthropology: Scaling Ethnographic Inquiry in‬ Human-Computer Interaction
MORRIS, J.S.K. (UWisc), LOUIS, C.N. (CNL), and MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI) A Tool for Scaling Ethnography to Support Decision Makers in Public Education
ZHENG, Mandy (SCAD) Digitalized Afterlife: A Study on the Management of Digital Preservation
 
For centuries ethnography has offered insights into culture, human behavior, language, social systems, and technology. Yet, they have often encountered barriers in translating their findings into policy and practice. In contrast, other disciplines (engineering and medicine) have proven methods for moving know-how into practice. Here the transfer of ethnographic findings into practice will be treated as a problem of scaling to practice, i.e., showing what applies to one or a few may also apply to many. Participants will report lessons learned and what works from their direct experience in scaling ethnography for business, education, public health, and product development.
 
BRUNA, Sean (WWU) An Ethnographic Look Inside a Federal‬‭ Initiative‬. In this presentation, a Senior Advisor at a federal agency explores the role of scaling from individual subject matter science to national policy and provides recommendations for anthropologists who wish to have their research inform national policy. Using a national initiative he led as a case study, he presents the strategic coordination of various components - research by scholars, national organizations, congress, career staffers, and representatives of multiple federal agencies, among others - to move from individual science to policy. While not ethnographic in the formal use of the term, he argues that the initiative's success stems from the application of ethnographic insights into the “field” of policy.
 
MILLER, Christine Z. and SIGHN PUNI, Tirath (SCAD) Scaling Up: From Small Starts to Big Impacts. This paper explores how student-led multidisciplinary collaborative projects with community actors can scale to have impact far beyond the classrooms in which they were initiated. We argue that applying a transdisciplinary approach that melds theoretical frameworks and methodological practice from anthropology with design’s communicative powers can boost the impact of “classroom projects” to resonate within networks over time. The temporal dimension is important to consider in thinking about scaling. Over time and through the strength of loose ties concepts and practices forged through transdisciplinary perspectives achieve scale in unanticipated ways.
 
TELLIEL, Yunus Doğan (WPI) Translational Anthropology: Scaling Ethnographic Inquiry in‬ Human-Computer Interaction. This paper focuses on challenges and possibilities of scaling ethnographic inquiry in two U.S.-based collaborative projects on human-computer interaction: the development of 1) an algorithm-based resource exchange platform for nonprofits and 2) of a large-scale program on (generative) AI literacy for faculty in higher education institutions. I have collaborated with industrial engineers in the first project and computer scientists in the second. Drawing on my fieldwork in these two projects, the paper shows that ethnographic inquiry can be used to create mobile and adaptable protocols for translation between different types of knowledge within the context of human-computer interaction.
 
MORRIS, J.S.K. (UWisc), LOUIS, C.N. (CNL), and MORRIS, Richard W. (MGI) A Tool for Scaling Ethnography to Support Decision Makers in Public Education. This paper shows how data gathered via participant observation can be refined and strengthened with parallel statistical analysis. An ethnography of STEM education in public schools of Maryland, Texas, and the District of Columbia over a three-year period is presented as the source of observations and potential insights which are in need of refinement and testing. These ethnographic insights are then evaluated in iterative fashion using principal component analysis (PCA), a method of multifactorial statistical analysis which can deepen understanding of context (co-occurrence) and salience (causality). This paper demonstrates how using ethnography and statistical analysis can enhance the conduct of ethnography and enable the transfer of qualitative research findings into practice.
 
ZHENG, Mandy (SCAD) Digitalized Afterlife: A Study on the Management of Digital Preservation. In today's digital age, people have on average 240 online account storing their personal data and information. However, there’s no standardized process for dealing with these digital accounts after death. The increase in online activity has created daunting obstacles in managing and maintaining a user's digital legacy. A systematic solution is urgently needed. This study explores the complexity of and necessity to manage digital legacy through a user-centered design approach. The study aims to raise awareness among users, organizations and society about the importance of digital heritage and to develop an effective, standardized framework for users to manage their digital assets.
Speakers
Richard Morris, MGI
Sean Bruna, Western Washington University, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology (on leave)
Christine Miller, Savannah College of Art and Design, Professor of Design Management
Yunus Doğan Telliel, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Assistant Professor
J.S.K. Morris
Mandy Zheng

An Interview with Dr. Ralph Bolton

Addressing Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing in Global Health

CHAIR: PAZ LEMUS, L. Tatiana (Vanderbilt U)
PAZ LEMUS, L. Tatiana (Vanderbilt U) Rethinking Childhoods and Childhood Obesity Through a Cultural Contexts of Health Approach
CUJ, Miguel (Vanderbilt U) Feasting on Knowledge: Exploring Guatemala’s Maya Food Groups in a Global Approach
KOSS, Sophia (Vanderbilt U) The Cultural Context of Heat: Addressing Heat in the U.S.
DISCUSSANT: HARVEY, T.S. (Vanderbilt U)
 
This session explores how many obstacles to health and wellbeing are grounded in colonial-legacy frameworks that privilege specialized scientific inquiry and give ‘individual autonomy’ and ‘personal responsibility’ outsized roles in their contribution to health outcomes and life chances. These papers will discuss the application of a Cultural Contexts of Health (CCH) approach to issues such as conceptions of childhood, pain, heat, and nutritional science. Building more just and equitable health futures requires addressing how unresolved colonial legacies in Guatemala, the US, and across the globe impact health and wellbeing.
 
PAZ LEMUS, L. Tatiana (Vanderbilt U) Rethinking Childhoods and Childhood Obesity Through a Cultural Contexts of Health Approach. This paper explores the application of the Cultural Contexts of Health approach to the conceptions of Childhoods and Childhood Obesity in Global Health. Based on the WHO’s Behavioral and Cultural Insights Unit model, the Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing initiative aims to show how accounting for cultural contexts and lived experiences can help identify upstream sources of health inequalities. In this paper, I aim to map out the colonial legacies in producing scientific knowledge about childhoods and childhood obesity, and the challenges of including medical humanities and children’s epistemologies in public health policy.
CUJ, Miguel (Vanderbilt U) Feasting on Knowledge: Exploring Guatemala’s Maya Food Groups in a Global Approach. This paper explores how the K’iche’ Maya people in Guatemala interact with the country’s food guidelines, regional food policies of classification, and nutritional global classification of food. The nutritional global and regional classification of food also influences recent food patterns of ultra-processed products in Guatemalan Indigenous communities. This biomedical approach dismisses Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies of food which classifies food according to relational taste and context. By analyzing contextual data, observing, and speaking with K’iche’ Maya ixoq’ib’ (women) in their food preparation and consumption practices, this paper highlights the cultural values of appropriate food that go unrecognized in food guidelines designed by global health experts.
 
KOSS, Sophia (Vanderbilt U) The Cultural Context of Heat: Addressing Heat in the U.S. As current heat waves affect different regions of the US, it is necessary to address how these impacts of heat are mostly human-created. As our bodies react to create environments and conditions that make us more vulnerable, exposure to heat can increase disparate health and wellbeing outcomes. This paper explores different angles where a cultural contexts of health approach can provide insights for heat and health policy in the US. By looking at global and local examples, I hope to highlight the potential importance of a cultural context approach to heat and health
Speakers
L. Tatiana Paz Lemus, Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health Initiative, Program & Research Manager
Miguel Cuj, Student
Sophia Koss, Vanderbilt University
T.S. Harvey, Vanderbilt University, Associate Professor of Medical and Linguistic Anthropology

An Interview with Dr. Kelly Fayard

Kelly Fayard
University of Denver
Kelly Fayard is speaking at
(W-132) Preserving Heritage: Voices of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians
March 26, 2025
5:45 pm – 7:30 pm
Grand Ballroom II

Revitalizing Applied Anthropology Through Field Schools: Insights and Advice on Starting and Running Applied/Engaged Field Schools

CHAIRS: ROBERTSON, William (U Memphis) and FLEURIET, K. Jill (UTSA)
ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS: FLEURIET, K. Jill (UTSA), LAMBERT-PENNINGTON, Katherine and ROBERTSON, William (U Memphis)
 
Many students gain hands-on experience and training in applied anthropology through the dozens of field schools offered around the world. Field schools are incredibly helpful for revitalizing applied anthropology because they present the next generation of applied anthropologists with opportunities for reflection on the discipline’s past while they help to build our discipline’s future. This roundtable brings together applied anthropologists who have established field schools around the globe to share insights and advice on how to begin a new field school as well as how to run a field school once it is established.
Speakers
William Robertson, University of Memphis, Assistant Professor
Katherine Lambert-Pennington, University of Memphis Full-time , Director School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy and Associate Professor of Anthropology

An Interview with Dr. Joeva Rock

Entrepreneurship as Pathways to Financial Independence

CHAIR: ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Arizona)
JUNG, Yuson (Wayne State U), BATTS, Dawn (Milestone Capital Growth Inst), THOMAS, Frankee, REIMUELLER, Kayleigh, UNDERWOOD, Ricky, EDMOND, Nakim, and WALTER, Morgan (Wayne State U), GONZALEZ, Yoel (Independent) Beyond Hustling and the Individual Entrepreneur: Building a Black Tech Ecosystem in Detroit
MINGEE, Jess (UIUC) Compatibility of the Entrepreneurial Mindset With Development Projects in Non-Industrialized Communities: A Case of Zambia
ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Arizona) and MILLER, Shane (MS State U) Agent-Based Reality (ABR) in Real Life (IRL): Modelling Financial Uncertainties in the Slums of Greater Casablanca, Morocco
BRAZELTON, Elizabeth “Lisa” (UA) Hemp for Hope: Agency Among Alabama Minority Hemp Farmers
 
JUNG, Yuson (Wayne State U), BATTS, Dawn (Milestone Capital Growth Inst), THOMAS, Frankee, REIMUELLER, Kayleigh, UNDERWOOD, Ricky, EDMOND, Nakim, and WALTER, Morgan (Wayne State U), GONZALEZ, Yoel (Independent) Beyond Hustling and the Individual Entrepreneur: Building a Black Tech Ecosystem in Detroit. While various efforts and initiatives attempt to close the racial wealth gap through economic growth in the US, little is known about underrepresented founders’ distinct experiences in tech ecosystems. The unique aspect of scalability in tech ventures presents both opportunities and challenges, especially for building an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on a qualitative study with the stakeholders of Detroit’s emerging Black tech ecosystem, this paper discusses their values and practices rooted in Detroit’s deep history and culture of entrepreneurship to demonstrate the importance of reframing entrepreneurship and wealth generation beyond the individual.
 
MINGEE, Jess (UIUC) Compatibility of the Entrepreneurial Mindset With Development Projects in Non-Industrialized Communities: A Case of Zambia. Within international development work, Western organizations have the difficult task of meeting their own objectives and process requirements while designing a solution that supports community needs. This presentation discusses an autoethnographic investigation of a for-profit startup organization implementing a project in rural Zambia, focusing on how decision-making is driven by the organization’s needs. Despite a profit model centered around community impact, the organization has displayed limited bandwidth to thoughtfully assess local conditions. Instead, they utilize cookie-cutter techniques, prioritizing prompt results to please the funding entities which support the organization – even if those results do not reflect local perception of impact
 
ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Arizona) and MILLER, Shane (MS State U) Agent-Based Reality (ABR) in Real Life (IRL): Modelling Financial Uncertainties in the Slums of Greater Casablanca, Morocco. In this paper, we challenge conventional assumptions about how low-income Moroccan households earn, spend, borrow and save money and we provide novel ways of “seeing” financial instability flows in real life. Based on ethnographic interviews, financial diaries, and the use of principle component analysis and Sankey diagrams, we graphically categorize and visualize flows of money between households of different socio-economic levels in a world marked by casual labor. We also underscore the utility of financial diaries in revealing the continuous upswings and downswings of household budgets as well as the coping strategies mobilized by various households against precariousness.
 
BRAZELTON, Elizabeth “Lisa” (UA) Hemp for Hope: Agency Among Alabama Minority Hemp Farmers. Hemp farming is risky business. The 2023 USDA Hemp Report showed a 71% decrease in hemp farming from 2022, and Alabama’s permitted hemp farmers decreased by 90% from 2019-2024. Newly legalized in 2014/2018, hemp was touted as a replacement crop for tobacco. Historically, Southern Black farmers were the predominate U.S. tobacco cultivators, but they are a minority among hemp farmers. I conducted field ethnography with five Black Alabama hemp farmers to examine racial biases and identify farmers’ challenges to success. I found that these farmers are redefining their roles reflected in how they enact agency in a cannabis equity discourse.
Speakers
Hsain Ilahiane, University of Arizona
Yuson Jung, Wayne State University, Associate Professor
Dawn Batts, Milestone Growth Capital Institute
Frankee Thomas, TechTown Detroit, Customer Discovery Specialist
Kayleigh Reimueller, Wayne State University, Grader - CRJ 1010 and 2550
Ricky Underwood
Nakim Edmond, Milestone Growth Capital Institute, Research Intern
Morgan Walter, Wayne State University , Business Anthropology
Jess Mingee, University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Doctoral Candidate
Elizabeth Brazelton, University of Alabama

AN Interview with Dr. David Natcher

David Natcher
David Natcher is speaking at
(TH-84) In the Shadow of Development: The Persistence of First Nations’ Subsistence Economies in the Peace Country, Canada
March 27, 2025
1:30 pm – 3:15 pm
Skyline II

Embodying and Producing Stigma: Violence, Morality, and the Consequences for Healthcare

CHAIR: PODRABSKY, Dylan (U Oregon)
ISLAM, Afsana (TX State U) Vitiligo and the Gender-Based Socio-Cultural Stigma: Contemporary Health Seeking Behaviour and Treatment Practices in Bangladesh
NEHUSHTAN, Hilla (U Pitt) Body Size Perceptions Among American Jewish Women
PODRABSKY, Dylan, HERBERT, Claire, SNODGRASS, Josh, and WEAVER, Lesley Jo (U Oregon) Symbolic Violence, Embodied Consequences: Stigma, Houselessness, and Health
GANLEY, Karla (UF Coll of Med) “Unreliable Historians”: How Physicians Use Patient Clinical Notes as Discursive Tools for Moral Education and Denial of Care
 
ISLAM, Afsana (TX State U) Vitiligo and the Gender-Based Socio-Cultural Stigma: Contemporary Health Seeking Behaviour and Treatment Practices in Bangladesh. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder that results in skin depigmentation, affecting 1-2% of the global population. In Bangladesh, vitiligo patients frequently endure stigma, stress, depression, shame, isolation, and low self-esteem, with notable gender disparities. This research employs a mixed-method design from a medical anthropological perspective to explore the lived experiences of vitiligo patients and the associated stigma in Bangladesh. It investigates pluralistic treatment practices and health-seeking behaviors while elucidating the patient-doctor relationship and therapy management dynamics. Study findings indicate that vitiligo patients face significant stigma in contexts such as marriage, employment, and public life, exacerbated by misconceptions about the disease’s contagiousness.
 
NEHUSHTAN, Hilla (U Pitt) Body Size Perceptions Among American Jewish Women. Historical studies reveal socio-medical views that associated Jews with immorality, fatness, and lust, connecting them to stereotypes of blackness and immigrants and positioning them as outsiders to the white bodily ideals in the U.S. The current study explores perceptions of bodywork among Jewish women in North America today. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews, this study ties the scholarly worlds of medical anthropology, religious studies, fat studies, and gendered bodywork and asks how religious Jewish women in the US perceive body size and negotiate the intersection of gendered expectations, religious prescriptions, food restrictions, and community ideals? Preliminary results focus on the pressure for thinness before wedlock, challenges with parenthood amid obesity scares and diet culture defiance, and complex relations with parents and family members about body and self-image.
 
PODRABSKY, Dylan, HERBERT, Claire, SNODGRASS, Josh, and WEAVER, Jo (U Oregon) Symbolic Violence, Embodied Consequences: Stigma, Houselessness, and Health. Stigma constantly exposes people experiencing houselessness (PEH) to symbolic violence – individual or collective actions which reinforce and reproduce internalized understandings of social values and hierarchies. This presentation draws on interviews conducted with government officials and PEH in a US city with a high rate of unsheltered houselessness. Thematic analysis revealed that symbolic violence enacted through stigmatization becomes embodied in PEH, leading to disproportionate health risks and further marginalization. This presentation seeks to illuminate how stigma functions as a form of symbolic violence, how this becomes embodied by the stigmatized, and how this social devaluation is translated into unequal material conditions.
 
GANLEY, Karla (UF Coll of Med) “Unreliable Historians”: How Physicians Use Patient Clinical Notes as Discursive Tools for Moral Education and Denial of Care. Clinical notes written by physicians are often regarded as objective records of patient health status. But what happens when the patient gives the physician an account of illness that doesn’t adhere to expected chronotopes of linear time and divisible space? By analyzing the case of a homeless patient who sought treatment for substance misuse, I show how this can led to testimonial injustice and denial of care. I will also show how clinical notes are discursive tools that reinforce culturally defined notions of what types of illness stories “count,” which patients are “morally responsible,” and who is “worthy” of care.
Speakers
Dylan Podrabsky, University of Oregon
Jo Weaver, University of Oregon, Associate Professor
Afsana Islam, Texas State University
Hilla Nehushtan, Religions Studies Department, University of Pittsburgh
Karla Ganley, University of Florida, Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology