ANTHMETHGRP4-2425-CARI-MILLER

[Last modified: December, 6 2024 10:40 AM]

When I first thought about writing about coeliac disease, I thought about exploring people’s relationships to their body and illness, to food, and to other people. This still holds true, but my methods have evolved from semi-structured interviews and visual multimodal methods.

I am still interested in using both of the above to conduct ethnography, but I am also interested in potentially using mixed methods in the form of a survey and statistical analysis to inform my research. I am also interested in exploring more intersectional aspects of people’s relationships to food. I am interested in structural elements particularly, such as politics and economics. In terms of coeliac disease, I would be interested in potentially doing a comparison between the United States and the United Kingdom’s labelling laws and how these impact people’s own perceptions of the severity of their disease and their knowledge of their diets. I would also be interested in people’s socioeconomic status and geographic location to assess their access to gluten free food and if this impacts their choices to eat or avoid gluten despite knowing it is very bad for their health. I think surveys would be an interesting place to gather this data.

I also think incorporating autoethnography to discuss my own positionality and engage with reflexivity is very important. I would also still be very interested in engaging with film and photography to capture the social nature of eating and all the sensations that come with food anxiety for those with coeliac disease. I also really value participant observation and fieldnotes more now than I knew to at the beginning of the course. I feel a lot of my research was pre-structured, and while this can be a good thing in many ways, I also feel I need to be more unstructured and open to observing how participants behave when they are not being interviewed, how they act around doctors, their families, their friends, and when alone.

Finally, I am still thinking about how I will present my findings. While I know my dissertation will be relatively structured, I am thinking about incorporating multimodality into the presentation of my research. I think accompanying photos or short video clips can really enhance how readers understand the experience of coeliac disease.

Over all, the methods class has helped me to both refine my area of interest and how I will go about obtaining and presenting information.

[Last modified: December, 1 2024 11:49 AM]

2. The social lives and technology use of elderly people in a London Community centre

I would first say to this student that this seems like a low risk ethics project if the elderly people do not have any cognitive impairment such as dementia. I would encourage them to make sure that their participants can give their full and informed written consent, and I would suggest that they ensure that the older adults they are involving are not vulnerable. I advise them to also make a plan of how they will share with everyone in the class that they are a researcher engaging in participant observation. I would include that there will always be some risk of a participant falling ill or going into mental decline, and they will need to be aware of this. They will also need to make a case for who this project is benefitting and why, but I can imagine that they could do that by suggesting that computer literacy might increase connectivity between elderly people and between elderly people and their younger family members and friends. I could imagine that it might be frustrating for some elderly people to engage in computer-literacy, and I would want this person to be aware of risks to their own emotional wellbeing if they are the target of this frustration as well as being aware of the emotional well being of their participants who may get fatigued or annoyed easily if the tasks are difficult. Given that they are computer literate and a younger person raised with technology, they are in a position of power over these elderly adults. While this is not a project-prohibitive issue, I would recommend they discuss it in their ethics form. 

I would also suggest they come up with a data protection plan and anonymise their data once they have collected it. I also wonder if this student is from London and why they are choosing to do their research here. I would suggest they justify this in their form. Finally, I am thinking about intersectionality and how this student will account for who is taking these classes: are they mostly elderly people? What is their class background and socioeconomic status? What demographic are they looking at specifically or are they comparing demographics? How have they accounted for marginalized people if they are part of their participant group? These are the next questions I would be curious about.

[Last modified: November, 24 2024 04:29 PM]

I spent time walking by Euston Station. I observed the sounds, smells, visuals, and the feeling of being in the space just outside the entry to the trains and the underground where people congregate. Multimodal ethnography is helpful here in that by using visual/audio representation to conduct interviews and present final findings, I can convey what is like to be in this area more directly and with far more detail. While the textual and the visual are often privileged, the integration of sound and the description of smells make experiences more enlivened and embodied, thus often making them more cognizable and relatable. With regard to Euston Station in particular, the smell of cigarettes is omnipresent. The outside tables, likely intended for social gathering and eating before a departure, have become a smoking ground. To convey the extent of the overwhelming atmosphere, visual film would be helpful, which also captures the sounds of cars going by and hooting as well as the cacophony of voices that fill the space. This space is the embodiment of a sensory overload, filling noses, ears, and eyes with constant stimuli, which I think multimodality can convey much better than text alone. Additionally, conducting this fieldwork through a multimodal lens would allow the researcher to understand the role of technology in everyday life even more. In this space that is filled with people, most aren’t talking but are using their phone or laptop and often headphones. Perhaps what contributes to the overwhelm of this space is the fact that there are so many bodies in a confined space and so few of them are interacting with each other but rather with technology. Thus, there is no calming sense of connection but rather a sense of isolation and a desire to remove your body from the smoke-filled outdoor space as fast as possible.

Indeed, I also think that using visual reality could also be a really interesting way to conduct ethnography going forward, with the ability to show others what environments are like and introduce smells while they are wearing goggles so that they are fully immersed in the experience. This way, we can develop embodied understanding amongst diverse groups of people in the hopes of activism stemming from empathy. I wonder how AI could be used to conduct anthropology going forward too.

[Last modified: November, 15 2024 01:16 PM]

I currently have chest infection, and I think it’s really interesting to think about experiencing the body in every space with a cough. When you do not have a cough, a stomach ache, a headache, or another illness or impairment, it’s easy to ignore how we feel, physically, in space. However, the moment you have to start attempting to repress a cough, you notice how many people are in a room, where the exit is, where you are seated. I often find myself, as a person with both anxiety and a chronic illness, choosing a seat closest to the door or an aisle seat in a lecture theater in case I need to leave a class for any reason. Thus, I begin to think about sick bodies or in some way non typical bodies and how they experience space. Specifically, I am analyzing the experience of being in class with a cough. 

As I sat in my 2 hour seminar a couple weeks ago, I tried to calm my breathing from the 40 minute commute to class. Breathing in the cold air to my bronchitis-impaired lungs during the first 10 minutes and last 5 minutes of my journey from Hampstead to the IOE had only irritated me more and I started to feel the scratch at my lungs, my airways constrict, and my throat tickle. The more I tried not to cough, the worse it got until finally I was in a full-blown coughing fit, having to stumble out of class to catch my breath. As a chronically ill person, I often experience my body as unpredictable, untrustworthy, and extreme and these feelings are heightened when I am in a classroom with a small amount of people who can easily observe me. I fidget and attempt to distract myself between doodling and opening my laptop, picking at the skin around my nails and darting my eyes around the room. I think you can always find the anxious people and/or the people who are not feeling well twitching and moving whereas people who are feeling good and present in their bodies generally tend to be more still, in my experience. Sitting in class when I was getting sick made me experience temperature differently as well as other bodies, which I felt were much closer together and stifling compared to when I am feeling good. It got me thinking about how space, like a classroom, might seem an objective size or temperature but these are completely subjective experiences.

[Last modified: November, 1 2024 10:50 AM]

In terms of the political dimensions of my research, I am thinking mainly about policy. I grew up in the US where the food labeling policy is very poor in terms of gluten disclosure. However, in the UK where I will likely conduct my research, the food labeling laws are much better. These laws  stipulate that any amount of gluten in food over 20ppm must be disclosed in bold on an ingredients label and that in order for foods to omit gluten from their labels, they must have undergone prior testing and meet these criteria. Perhaps a comparison could be interesting between peoples experiences in the US and the UK as the different policies might lead to different anxiety levels, likelihood of eating out, and even experiences of symptoms. It’s interesting to think about the power that each government has, through their policies, to either make citizens with coeliac disease feel safe, included, and cared for or indeed excluded and nervous when it comes to eating. 

I am also thinking about how doctors are educated, or not educated, about coeliac disease. I know from experience that in the US, medical doctors often only learn about coeliac disease for 15 minutes while in their nutrition rotation. This has biopolitical implications in terms of how seriously coeliac disease is taken by MDs as well as the patients who they diagnose and explain the condition to. Thus, someone is more or less likely to adhere to their gluten free diet depending on the education their doctor received. Therefore, through disciplinary power, doctors in both countries can produce and reproduce narratives of coeliac disease being not a big deal and the lifelong gluten free diet being a ‘simple’ solution.

Finally, I think about the economic dimensions to coeliac disease  and how the UK offers food on prescription to those with coeliac disease, thus attempting to lower the financial burden, while the US does not try to subsidize gluten free food despite it being a necessity for those with celiac disease. Additionally, there is no money for the medical system or pharmaceutical companies to make after a coeliac diagnosis because it typically only requires a lifelong gluten free diet and vitamin and nutrient supplementation. Thus, I wonder about the politico-economic elements of coeliac disease and how these contribute to the disease being taken seriously by physicians, patients, and the general public. 

[Last modified: October, 27 2024 09:45 PM]

I was out sick this week but I later observed people during a walk in Hampstead Heath. It was a bright, sunny day but simultaneously cold and crisp. The trees are just turning to various hues of orange, red, and brown from their summary green and the Heath is filled with walkers, escaping from the urban center of London for brief moments on a Sunday. I sit, bundled up, on a bench near the center and watch as people walk by, some alone but many with friends, partners, strollers, and other loved ones. As I listen I hear snippets of their conversations, with phrases like “I told him to!” “She’s upset…” “I honestly hated them” and “She doesn’t understand” jumping out. What struck me about most of the conversations that people were having around me was that they were largely about other people, who were likely not present. I thought about the Sunday ritual of relaxing, escaping to a green space, and processing the week with others. I thought about the action of verbal processing and how human beings are so relational that it is difficult to talk to someone else without another person coming up in conversation in some capacity.

The words I wrote were largely paradoxical: peaceful, crowded, green but with sites of the London skyline, quiet and loud, nature and man. This got me thinking about the city and greenspace and how even though the Heath is incredible and seems big to many people, for me coming from california and growing up in the mountains, close to the ocean, and surrounded by redwood trees, it seems so small, so urban still, and so full of people it can hardly be considered an escape. I don’t understand how we can find peace surrounded by people or feel an escape when we can still see the city and there is no silence or purity of nature. All of this got me thinking about mental and physical health and the connection between our internal and external worlds. With relation to my project, I thought about healing from illness and the city and how it feels almost impossible to feel clean and healthy from the inside out in a polluted urban space. It’s like our bodies are shrinking green spaces surrounded by industry.

[Last modified: October, 20 2024 01:03 PM]

When I look at this research question, I think a lot about socioeconomic status and the affordability (or lack thereof) of gluten free food. According to Coeliac UK, “the weekly food shop can cost as much as 20% more for an individual with coeliac disease which can be even more for families with more than one person diagnosed.” I am interested in my research question from a biosocial medical perspective, that is, how coeliac disease is thought of as a primarily genetic condition by medical professionals but may be experienced more socially and also have environmental causes. Yet, I see how responses to this question could center around prices and inaccessibility for those that cannot afford gluten free food as easily or as often as those from higher socio economic backgrounds in urban settings with many grocery stores and restaurants. This also gets me thinking about geographic location and the fact that I will likely be interviewing people who live in or are currently located in London, a city with a relatively large amount of knowledge of coeliac disease, many restaurants and cafes that cater to coeliac needs, and lots of public transport. I see the limitations of such a study and I might decide to compare and contrast geographic locations, attempting to contact individuals from more remote areas of the country or those for whom affordability is an issue or concern. 

Additionally, I think about my gender and how women in general are more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune diseases. I am aware of the potential differences in vulnerability regarding symptoms and the emotional burden of the disease due to gender norms in various cultures surrounding masculinity. Thus, I might start with a broader, simpler research question, perhaps something along the lines of “what is it like to have coeliac disease” and observe how people respond and in what direction they choose to take this question before asking more complex questions about food. 

I also understand that I have substantial education about coeliac disease and holistic approaches to health and that my participants may not, so answers might not be as complex as  my own responses would be. Some people may not have thought very much about their diagnosis beyond the simple fact that they should not eat gluten. I will try to have a long list of follow up questions and discussion about their understanding of the disease and what it means to them and if how seriously they do or don’t treat their diagnosis is informed by their doctors’ reactions.

[Last modified: October, 13 2024 03:35 PM]

I am sitting in a large brown leather chair in a Starbucks on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. Its seat cushion still retains some of the original plushness it must have been made with, but the fabric is slightly lighter in this spot than on its legs and back, betraying its age and use. As I look up from my small circular table in the corner by the window, I see other students and business people, most of whom are typing on Apple laptops, with various forms of Apple headphones filling their ears with their own personal soundtrack. If they have chosen to opt into the starbucks playlist instead, like I have, they hear relaxing jazz over the speakers, the screech of the milk steamer, the general hum of overlapping conversations throughout the room, and forks and cups hitting porcelain plates. 

I focus on a mother and daughter ordering “a small cappuccino with soy milk, a small hot chocolate with extra whipped cream, and a piece of banana bread to go,” all under the name “Elizabeth”. I wonder if Elizabeth’s request for soy milk is a preference, due to an allergy to milk, or a lactose intolerance. I think about the inflammation linked to dairy consumption, the dairy industry itself, and my own personal dietary restrictions caused by coeliac disease. She did not ask any questions about cross contamination, especially with that districtly screechy milk steamer, so I assume that whatever the reason, it must not be medically serious. Then again, I think about the shame, embarrassment, and burden I feel when having to explain my needs around food to anyone, let alone the person I’m ordering from. 

The barista taking Elizabeth’s order does not ask any follow up questions, and this reminds me of how normalized fad diets have become in Western culture: from almond milk to oat milk to gluten free pasta to villainizing anything that is in a package. I think about how food has become a source of illness, with ultra processed foods destroying the microbiome but on the other hand how orthorexia claims lives. I think about how dietary restrictions are seen as a choice rather than serious and if your allergy or intolerance does not result in anaphylaxis it might as well be irrelevant. 

All of this gets me thinking about how easy it is for the majority of the population to walk into a Starbucks in almost any city in the world and in a couple of moments decide what they want to eat and drink based solely on their cravings and what ‘sounds’ best. I think about how life changing coeliac disease is as I sit with my peppermint tea, inspecting the cup and spoon for any trace of crumbs that may have made their way into my drink. With this autoimmune disease, food becomes a source of illness, a pathogen, a danger to the immune system, and something to be feared rather than enjoyed socially with spontaneity.

[Last modified: October, 6 2024 05:24 PM]

Topic: Coeliac Disease 

I am interested in exploring coeliac disease. Namely, I am interested in the idea that for individuals with this autoimmune disease, food is both a source of illness (in the form of gluten) and a medicine (the gluten free diet). I am curious how people with this disease negotiate their relationship to food, to a body ‘fighting against’ them, and to others around them as food is a profoundly social experience.

Question(s):

• How do people with coeliac disease relate to food?
• What is the experience of eating like with a coeliac diagnosis?

Methods:

Through semi-structured interviews, I would interview various people about their experience with pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, and the gluten free diet they are prescribed. I am curious about speaking to family members who may or may not have coeliac themselves about their experiences as well as medical professionals, especially gastroenterologists and dietitians. Finally, I would want to hear perspectives from those diagnosed at or soon after birth who have likely never eaten significant amounts of gluten to see how their experience and relationship to food differs.

Additionally, I would be interested in using photography and video as methods through which to observe and analyze eating. I am interested in the emotions, spoken or otherwise expressed, and the body language associated with eating in restaurants with others. It would also be interesting to use these methods to observe how those around the individual with dietary restrictions react and interact with coeliac disease, the gluten free diet, and discourses around gluten.

Potential findings:

I wonder if, as food becomes a source of danger and anxiety post-diagnosis, if restricted eating patterns ensue. Conversely, I am curious about the biological development of coeliac disease after experiencing disordered eating and the resulting stress that this puts on the digestive system. I think it is likely that patterns of disordered eating might be something I observe or hear about in my research about experiences of coeliac disease. Yet, I expect that I also might find that some individuals form a closer relationship with their body and food after diagnosis. This may emerge in the form of wanting to understand more about their nutrition needs, how they can support healing holistically, or through an increased interest in cooking and baking. More generally, I expect that people with coeliac disease will have a complex relationship with food, eating and social life post diagnosis.

[Last modified: October, 1 2024 06:28 PM]

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