From studying ancient microbial DNA and Greek shipwrecks to understanding vaccine hesitancy and contemporary relational dynamics, our Public Issues Anthropology MA students are using their research to create social impact. Here are just two examples of graduate research projects presented at the fall 2023 Anthropology Grad Forum.
Studying patient-doctor relationships
Wynne Manning studies how patients in Ontario trust doctors and how that trust is influenced by different factors. Using interviews and diary entries, she examines how doctors and patients connect with each other through the notion of attunement.
“I was drawn to study anthropology because it is [so] multidisciplinary. I have a background in health science, so having an option to explore people’s health in another way was really fascinating to me,” says Wynne.
“This area of research can help in better understanding the patient-doctor relationship by illustrating how patients and doctors interact with each other throughout the lifetime of the patient. The field of study can also demonstrate how patients’ experiences with receiving healthcare in the past may impact the healthcare they receive or their access to it currently or in the future. I hope to help in discovering ways for patients to receive the most optimal care they can while they navigate the healthcare system.”
Examining live-in domestic work in Costa Rica
Camila Font studies practices of live-in domestic work in Costa Rica and the relationships that are created and negotiated through the intimacy of sharing space. She is particularly concerned with how kinship politics reveal structured interrelations of inequality, marginalization and stigmatization.
“What first drew me towards studying anthropology was intrigue towards engaging in ethnographic fieldwork,” says Camila. “In high school, I saw doing participant observation as this wonderful opportunity to explore whatever was ‘out there’ and relate with people that I did not know, or thought I knew and would come to learn about through their own perspectives.
“Difference of social circumstances leads to power dynamics that are often unjust, and anthropological research outputs are particularly well-suited to reflect how these differences are lived, circulated and taken up across interactions that people have with other people, and everything else in our globalized environment. … As an anthropologist, I believe that I hold power to dialogue in courageous compassion and try to encourage people to see the point of view of someone who is an ‘other’ to them, and how this ‘other’s’ reality is ultimately also related to them.”