WPOHFall2021

   What is an ethnographic interview? IF anthropology is the study of what we (humans) do and say and think and mean, and IF we cannot read minds… THEN the most ethically correct (and also effective, efficient, etc.) way to get at the thoughts and beliefs and understandings of other human beings is by  asking them , in addition to observing them, thereby allowing  real human beings  to have  real voices  and  a real say  in what and why and how they do and say and think as they do.  “Man, drag queens are a unique bunch,” I think to myself. And I’ve done a solid amount of participant observing among them in pageants and shows for years. I can even arrive at conclusions based on my observing: “It seems to me that their decision to do drag are decisions to pursue their passions, despite the economic and social risks which still exist today. I mean, they talk about the importance of doing what you love and stuff all the time.” I continue thi...

  SJAA LINKS AC Outlaws Oasis Law suit NPR Radio Films on Harm Reduction: REAL DRUG EDUCATION FOR TEENS? HARM REDUCTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH LAW: HERE WHAT IS HARM REDUCTION? HEALING, RECOVERY, and CULTURE

 Read Chapter  HERE In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote  Illness as Metaphor , a classic work described by  Newsweek  as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows  how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is -- just a disease.  Cancer, she argues, is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment  and, it is highly curable, if good treatment is followed. "Susan Sontag's  Illness as Metaphor  was the  first to point out the accusatory side of the metaphors of empowerment that seek to enlist the patient's will to resist disease.  It is largely as a result of her work that the how-to health books avoid the blame-ridden term  'cancer per...