Ordinary Wars: Transition, Weddings, Wives, Choreography and Research

Elizabeth Sharp, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, writes: In November 2012, I had the pleasure of participating in the Times of Transition Workshop, sponsored by the Centre for Medical Humanities and the Institute of Advanced Study. I spoke about timing in single women’s lives, drawing on two of my social science studies examining ever-single women. Taking a life course perspective, I question whether women in my samples were “missing” (passive) and/or avoiding/averting (active) the transition of marriage. The women in the studies were between 25 and 40 years old – often considered “prime family building years.”  I brought into focus how the women negotiated their personal desires with societal expectations more generally, and expectations related to timing of marriage and children more specifically.

This work on single women along with another one of my studies (examining weddings and new wives) was the impetus for an evening-length dance performance. Three choreographers examined my qualitative data sets and created dances. We also used portions of the verbatim transcripts as part of the performance. The concert titled “Ordinary Wars” was performed by a professional dance company, Flatlands Dance Theatre, in Lubbock, Texas on March 23, 2013 and in Blacksburg, Virginia on March 27, 2013. Over 200 people attended the performances.

Purpose of the Dance/Social Science Project: “Ordinary Wars”*
The objective of the project was to make public traditionally privatized negotiations of women’s ideologies and experiences of singlehood and marriage. Towards that end, the project asked choreographers to re-analyze and re-present social science data through live dance performance The performance drew on two separate qualitative data sets – one study focused on newly married women transitioning to be wives and the other focused on women choosing to be single and/or childfree. The choreographer used an embodied analysis (see Sharp & Durham-DeCesaro, in press, for more details). The project emphasized bodily knowledge and lived experience as lenses through which to view, interpret, and re-present social science qualitative data.

Audience Response to Ordinary Wars
Preliminary findings from the audience members indicated that the performance itself stimulated thought and greater awareness about cultural expectations related to femininity, as well as emotional reactions. One student at Virginia Tech University reflected after viewing the Ordinary Wars concert:

“The performance did make me really think about the stereotypes of being a woman      and what society expects of us. I liked that a lot. I even went home and discussed some of the points that were made last night with my boyfriend, just to see what his views were. Also, with many of my friends getting married soon, it made me really think about what else they have coming besides pretty dresses and a big party.”

Other Audience members commented:

“Very moving, especially to see the women’s bodies flowing, jumping, dancing, speaking, gesturing on stage. I loved the dancing, and it was made all the more powerful by the overlay of rich qualitative data. I’ve never seen anything like this before, and found it delightful and shocking–it really shook me up–in a positive and inspiring way.”

“Watching a performance about weddings made me realize that in a way, weddings       themselves are performances”

“I thought the concert was very moving. I experienced several emotions throughout. I thought the concert resonated with me.”

View the Performance

Backstage Viewing: The Bumpy Road to The Dance Concert
Although, in the end, the performance was well-received and we were both pleased with the outcome, the social scientist and the lead dance choreographer experienced an arduous process to get there. Since the inception of the project, we have committed to exposing the “messiness” accompanying transdisciplinary projects. In a recent paper, we share one of the greatest dilemmas we encountered – our separate relationships to data. We consider data as a “troubling anchor” in our project. Below is an excerpt from our paper:

Relationships with Data

For the social scientist, her relationship to the data can be characterized as close, privileged, and contextualized. In her analysis for her social science publications, she closely read the data, engaging in line-by-line coding. It is typical for her to read transcripts more than five times each. She highly values data and it has a privileged position for her. The extent to which she depends on and privileges data was made evident in her work with this project and has helped her become aware of how such dependence can be a hindrance in an interdisciplinary project.

Many times, but not always, choreographers use data and other stimuli (text, visual images, political situations) as jumping off points. For her role in this project, the choreographer presumed she could read the transcripts once, pull what she wanted to use from the transcripts, and begin to make dance. The choreographer did not anticipate that the social scientist would be so familiar with the data that she would question when the choreographer made artistic decisions that did not accurately represent the environment or the context of the original interview.

We discuss our solutions, compromises, and continuing questions in our paper: “Almost Drowning: Data as a Troubling Anchor in a Dance/Social Science Collaboration.” We are continuing to work together as we enjoy the “risk, danger, and exceptional reward possible in transdisciplinary research” (Durham-DeCesaro & Sharp, in press).

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Sharp who is currently working in Durham as a Honorary Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, or the lead dance choreographer in the project Genevieve Durham-DeCesaro.

References

• Durham-DeCesaro, G., & Sharp, E. A. (Under Contract- to be completed in March 2014).Toward Innovative and Transdisciplinary Methodologies.  Common Ground Publishing, Inc.
• Durham-DeCesaro, G., & Sharp, E.A. (In Press). Immersion in the muddy waters of a collaboration between a social scientist and a choreographer. The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts.
• DeCesaro-Durham, G., & Sharp, E. A. (Under Review) Almost Drowning: Data as a Troubling Anchor in a Dance/Social Science Collaboration. Dance Research Journal
• Sharp, E. A., & Durham-DeCesaro, G. (In Press). What Does Rejection Have to Do With It?: Toward An Innovative, Kinesthetic Analysis of Qualitative Data. Forum Qualitative  Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research.
• Sharp, E. A., & Ganong, L. (2011). “I’m a Loser, I’m Not Married, Let’s Just All Look at Me”: Ever Single Women’s Perceptions of their Social Environment.  Journal of Family Issues, 32, 956-980.

Grants

• “Claiming One’s Body: Using Dance as an Intervention for Young Women.” Fahs-Beck  Community Fund ($19,994; Under Review, April 2013). PI’s Elizabeth Sharp and Genevieve Durham DeCesaro
• “Making Space: Publicizing ‘Ordinary’ Women’s Lives through a Transdisciplinary Dance & Social Science Collaborative Project ($10,000) Texas Tech University Creative Activities, Humanities, and Social Sciences Award Competition (2013). PI’s: Elizabeth Sharp and Genevieve Durham DeCesaro
• “Toward Innovative and Transdiciplanary Methodologies: Re-Analyzing and Re-Presenting Social Science Data through Dance” ($19,997) Texas Tech University Creative Activities, Humanities, and Social Sciences Award Competition (2012). PI’s:Genevieve Durham DeCesaro and Elizabeth Sharp

Funding for this project was provided by the Texas Tech University Office of the Vice President for Research. The wedding study was funded by a seed grant from the College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University. The single women research was funded by the Anthony Marchionne Small Grants Program.

‘Putting a Name to It: Diagnosis, health and illness’ – Annemarie Jutel (Seminar, Durham University Monday 10 June 2013)

The Centre for Medical Humanities and the Qualitative Health Research Group invite you to attend:

‘Putting a Name to It: Diagnosis, health and illness’
Annemarie Jutel
Victoria University of Wellington, Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health

Monday 10th June, 3 – 4.45pm
Williams Library, St. Chad’s College.

While diagnosis is important in identifying and curing disease, it also has a strong social impact. Diagnosis can be a source of anxiety or of relief, of hope or of despair. It structures the experience of health and illness, deciding what counts as normal, defining who is responsible for what disorders, providing frameworks for communication and structuring relationships. It presents a point around which tensions may develop, and interests collide. This presentation will present the sociology of diagnosis, underlining how the material reality of disease is both shaped by, and influences, social life.

Dr Sally Brown, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, will give a short response to the paper, followed by general discussion.

All welcome.

Fully funded PhD studentship in Local Health Inequalities in an Age of Austerity: the Stockton on Tees Study

Fully funded PhD studentship in Local Health Inequalities in an Age of Austerity: the Stockton on Tees Study

About the Award
Applications are invited for a fully-funded three-year doctoral studentship as part of a large 5 year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The project aims to provide a contemporary and innovative, theoretically informed, comprehensive, interdisciplinary, mixed methods intensive case study of the aetiology and experience of health inequalities in Stockton on Tees, North East England.

Eligibility
We are looking for candidates who are interested in pursuing doctoral research in the areas of health and wider socio economic inequalities. Candidates will be expected to assist with a longitudinal health survey of the Stockton on Tees area. The survey will investigate the health inequalities between the 20% most and the 20% least deprived wards in the locality using a sample of 500 individuals drawn from households. Interviews will be carried out every 12 months for 4 years providing a face-to-face baseline survey with 3 telephone follow ups. Comprehensive demographic and social determinants of health data will be collected and health will be measured using well validated instruments of general health, physical health and mental health. Candidates will be expected to pursue a particular issue within the social determinants of health.

Applicants should be outstanding graduates (2:1 or 1st class honours degree, Masters degree desirable) of health geography, sociology, social policy, social anthropology, or public health, with a particular interest in social surveys, quantitative data, practical fieldwork and analysis. The project will be supervised by     Professor Clare Bambra, Dr Jon Warren and Dr Adetayo Kasim. The student must be able to work independently but will also be expected to contribute to the wider project including co-authoring PhD and project papers.

How to Apply
To apply for this studentship you must submit all the following documents to Veronica Crooks by Monday 24th June, 2013 at the latest:

• CV
• A short summary demonstrating how your skills and interests can contribute to the project (one page)
• Two references from academic referees
• Certificates of qualification
• Academic transcripts

Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview at the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University Queens Campus, Stockton on Tees. The studentship includes a stipend and the tuition fees at the UK / EU rate. The studentship will start on 1st October, 2013.

If you have any questions about any part of the application process please contact Veronica Crooks.

Further Information
Please see the project website for further details. For informal enquiries regarding the projects, please contact either Professor Clare Bambra  or Dr Jon Warren.

First public conference: Terror and Joy combined

Reblogged from Belledelettres's Blog:

What? Understanding Human Flourishing, Postgraduate Conference

Where? Holgate Centre, Grey College, Durham University

When? 16/17 May 2013

Who? A wonderful mixture of people from a variety of different disciplines

Why? Learning, presenting, networking, eating, exploring

How? With curiosity, trepidation and excitement!

It didn't start well. When I gave the taxi driver my destination, he said "Oh, I'm a Sunderland driver, I don't know the place." Luckily he was game and after a little "help" from maps, sat nav and a hopeful attitude, he took me to the right place.

Read more… 1,681 more words

For more information about the Understanding Human Flourishing Conference please visit previous posts or check out this storify collection of tweets.

The S Factor (A Poem by Sandy Jeffs)

The S Factor

For Heidi

Sometimes
Craziness creates a
Heightened
Illumination of the
Zeitgeist
Originality its
Privilege
Humour its
Revenge
Every outsider
Nonconformist work of art is an
Ingenious
Act of lunacy.

© Sandy Jeffs 2013

Sandy Jeffs is an Australian poet and community educator. Her memoir Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness, published by Vulgar Press, was SANE book of the Year in 2010. You can read more of her poems and essays on this site here.

Wellcome Trust Funding Announcement

Over the past five years the Wellcome Trust has sought to add to our traditional focus on the history of medicine and biomedical ethics by enabling scholars from across the humanities and social sciences to apply to the Trust for funding.

From 23 May 2013, all three of our funding streams in the humanities and social sciences will be expanding, with new opportunities for a wide variety of research proposals.

Applications to the Medical Humanities funding stream will no longer be limited to those that are ‘historically grounded’. We seek to encourage bold and intellectually rigorous research that uses a range of methods and sources to explore the social, historical and cultural dimensions of health, medicine and disease. We believe that these broad approaches will not only help to illuminate our perceptions of health and illness in the past and present, but also serve to shape the practice of medicine and experiences of health in the future.

The Society and Ethics programme supports research that examines the social and ethical aspects of biomedical research and health, with the aim of addressing tractable, real-world problems. Our commitment to research informing the ethical dilemmas arising from biomedical or health research, healthcare practices, and health interventions continues. Our expansion of the programme reflects the recognition that broader research on the social, economic and cultural factors that influence biomedical research and health is essential to help meet the Wellcome Trust’s strategic challenges.
The Research Resources programme underpins research across the medical humanities and social sciences by supporting cataloguing and preservation projects in libraries and archives in the UK and Ireland. By improving access to significant collections of printed books, documents, film and photographic material, we aim to ensure important research resources are both well known and well used.

Homeric Epic and the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – Jonathan Shay (Public Lecture, Durham, 18 June 2013)

Homeric Epic and the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Jonathan Shay
Monday 18 June 2013, 5.30 pm
Hogan Lovells Lecture Theatre, Durham Law School, Palatine Centre, Durham University

Slide from the 2002 Documentary Achilles in Vietnam http://www.achillesinvietnam.com/

Dr Jonathan Shay will talk about the relevance of Homeric epic to his ground-breaking clinical work on the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A clinical psychiatrist and leading authority on the condition, Dr. Shay is the author of Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994) and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002), where he identifies moral injury, and breaches of trust between soldiers and their leaders, as key factors obstructing the acquisition and maintenance of successful treatment for PTSD.

A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, Dr Shay has served as Chair of Ethics, Leadership, and Personnel Policy in the Office of the U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel; and in 2007 was awarded a Macarthur ‘Genius Grant’ Fellowship in recognition of his life-long work on PTSD.

His talk is sponsored by the Department of Classics and Ancient History, the Institute of Advanced Study, and the Centre for the Medical Humanities.

Please register your attendance via the following link.

Using Dance as an Intervention: Can dance help prevent and decrease psychological and health-related problems among young women?

Elizabeth Sharp, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, writes: Despite the alarmingly high rates of disordered eating on US college campuses, very few prevention efforts have been successful. The evidence is clear that women’s bodies are intimately linked to well-being and health, but their bodies are rarely involved in prevention, intervention, or treatment efforts. Although not addressing women’s health directly, other work has indicated the promise of dance as a way to promote social justice and help individuals become more aware of societal expectations and their participation in cultural prescriptions (Fitzgerald, 2008). Our aim is to take the best practices from the existing literature and involve women’s bodies.

In this innovative project, we propose using dance as a way to expose, kinesthetically explore, and dialogically address unrealistic and problematic ideas about romance, societal expectations placed on women and related issues such as body image and disordered eating.  We intend to systematically evaluate and refine the use of social science research and dance as an intervention tool among young women. In so doing, it is expected that we will help prevent and decrease psychological and health-related problems among young women, which, in turn, will help women’s partners, families, friends, and wider communities. It is also anticipated that results from the proposed project will yield wider benefits, including: refining collaborative work among dance choreographers, dancers, and social scientists, promoting more effective interventions and prevention models, and making public often privatized conversations about women’s ideas of romance and social expectations.

The proposed project draws on the CO-PI’s (a social scientist and a dance choreographer) successful and collaborative evening-length concert, Ordinary Wars, funded by a previous grant from our university.  (See my previous post on the CMH blog for more details).

In the present project, extending our previous work, we propose offering a three-pronged intervention based on: (A) viewing the performance, (B) engaging in a focus group, and (C) participating in a dance movement workshop. We are building on the effectiveness of our previous project by including the third component, a participatory movement workshop designed to kinesthetically explore the ideas presented in the concert. We also propose to evaluate our intervention efforts. We will create two distinct spaces in which women can confront and question problematic societal expectations concerning romance and body image using cognitive, emotional, and kinesthetic approaches. The discussions groups will offer a safe place to explore contemporary issues facing college women and the dance movement workshops will help women explore meaningful kinesthetic reactions and choices.

Reference
Fitzgerald, M. (2008). Community dance: Dance Arizona Repertory Theatre as vehicle for cultural emancipation. In N. Jackson & T. Sharpiro-Phim (Eds.), Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press. (pp 256-269.)

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Sharp who is currently working in Durham as a Honorary Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, or the lead dance choreographer in the project Genevieve Durham-DeCesaro.