Supporting Community Health (Asynchronous Session)
Using Theatre to Bridge a Divide: How One Small Arts Organization in Rural Florida is Healing Old Wounds View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elise Kieffer
Quincy Music Theatre operates in Quincy, the county seat of Gadsden County, Florida, U.S.A. Historically, the local economy was agriculture, primarily shade-grown tobacco. As in many other southern communities, the reliance on agriculture in Quincy brought with it strains in race relations, as wealthy white land owners were seen to oppress poorer laborers of color, primarily African Americans. Amid those already tense race relations, local Quincy investors were responsible for growing the local Coca-Cola company into an international conglomerate. This history led to great socio-economic divides exacerbating the racial divides plaguing the community. In the midst of this environment, stands Quincy Music Theatre (QMT). They are based in the historic Leaf Theatre that once operated as a segregated movie theater. Since the late 1980s, the building has been owned and operated by QMT. QMT faces opposition as an art organization in a low socio-economic community as well as due to its status as an organization founded by wealthy white community members operating in a building that exemplifies the racial tensions in the community. I began this study with the intention of learning about the methods undertaken by a rural arts administrator trying to keep an organization going. The issues that arose regarding race relations and inter-generational politics became very central to this study. I learned the staff at QMT deliberately and delicately confronts and challenges the local climate of racial tension, bringing the community together and facilitating difficult conversations.
Breast Cancer Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors among Recent Islamic/Muslim Refugee Women in Canada View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Louise Racine, Isil Andsoy, Sithokozile Maposa, Susan Fowler-Kerry
The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a research aimed at assessing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors associated with breast cancer screening among Islamic/Muslim refugee women in Canada. Cancer represents a global health issue, and breast cancer is the second most common cancer and one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the world. Women in Arabic-speaking countries appear to have the lowest rates of breast cancer screening among ethnocultural groups living in Western countries. The project explored the following two research questions: 1) What are Islamic/Muslim refugee women’s perceptions of susceptibility and seriousness about breast cancer? 2) What are the barriers and benefits that may influence Islamic/Muslim refugee women’s participation in breast self-examination and mammograms? A convenient sample composed of 75 Islamic/Muslim refugee women has been recruited to participate in the study through immigrant settlement agencies. A quantitatively-driven mixed method design is used to answer the research questions. Correlation and logistic regression analyses and 3 interviews with key informants were performed to answer the research questions. Participants’ mean age was 37.9 years. Severe gaps in knowledge were identified. Ninety-one percent of the women did not know how to perform breast self-examination, 68% did not perform regular BSE, 87% did not have regular mammograms, and 73% never had mammograms. Lack of knowledge, motivation, and characteristics of Arab culture create barriers to breast cancer screening. The inclusion of Muslim women in health promotion programs and health policies is recommended to avoid increased breast cancer morbidity.
Supporting Refugee Health through Academic and Community Partnership: The Eastern Virginia Medical School Refugee Health Collaborative
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alexandra Leader, Lydia Cleveland
Forced migration progressively characterizes the nature of our global community. Local health care systems must adapt to meet diverse needs and incorporate distinctive strengths of societies that include growing refugee and immigrant communities. Approximately 18,000 refugees have been resettled in Virginia, USA since 2013. The Global Health Division at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) founded the Refugee Health Initiative in 2017 in partnership with the federally-sponsored refugee resettlement agency (Commonwealth Catholic Charities), local branches of the Virginia Department of Health, non-governmental organizations, local public schools and churches, and refugee community leaders to collaboratively improve access to healthcare and health education within refugee communities of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Incorporation of EVMS medical students and faculty in health service, research, and training focused on refugee health priorities in partnership with refugee community members and organizations has facilitated the collaborative identification and management of specific refugee health needs, empowering both patients and professionals. The EVMS Refugee Health Collaborative has facilitated implementation of bi-monthly refugee health fairs, ongoing mental health research, international refugee health service, and professional development to improve the health of refugee communities and the provision of culturally-appropriate and linguistically-competent healthcare.
Cultivating Families’ Resilience through Positive Autism Identity in Religious Communities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emily Hedrick, Maria Teresa Valencia, Jordan Say, Isabelle Kim, Jessica Black
Resilience in families with autistic children evolves through stages of autism identity. Studies describe different stages of identity development for autistic children and their families including diagnosis, finding belonging with other families with autistic children, and identifying strength through relationship with the autistic child. Studies also identify three key elements for families with autistic children developing resilience: (1) making meaning of adversity, (2) affirming strength and keeping a positive outlook, and (3) having spirituality and a belief system. Even as spirituality and belief systems have been identified as key components of developing resilience in families of autistic children, we do not know what role religious involvement plays in supporting or dismantling potential resilience in families. Religious groups as social groups can influence the severity of negative identity first experienced through diagnosis. However, with the advantage of focusing on meaning making through spirituality and belief systems, religious communities could be spaces where families with autistic children can experience support in developing positive identities for themselves and their child in relation to the initial autism diagnosis. To understand the impact of religious involvement on the development of resilience through autism identity in families with autistic children, we must understand the theological and functional role religious communities are playing in stages of identity development. Reflecting on interviews with families of autistic children, their pastors, and the leaders in their religious education environments, this paper suggests ways in which religious communities can intentionally create environments that support developing resilience in families with autistic children.
Digital Access to Cultural Heritage: Facing Structural Inequalities Beyond Discourse View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ioannis Papageorgiou
The COVID-19 pandemic, besides the urgent health crisis, has also intensified the debate on many different aspects of social life and policy, including access and inclusion problems. In that framework, digital access appears as the universal and most effective solution. Digital access to cultural heritage collections is not a novelty. It is crucial, however, to note how the recent discourse on empowerment through digital access potentially covers longstanding structural access inequalities. This is even more so in the case of intangible cultural heritage collections. In the framework of the 'InCulture' research project researchers in humanities, social sciences and informatics develop a method for the collaborative collection, narrative creation and presentation of intangible cultural heritage elements in Rhodes island, Greece. A research strategy based on oral history methodology is put into effect through a series of life narrative interviews. Through this process, separate elements of intangible cultural heritage are arranged and re-arranged into broader narratives in an open access platform. In an environment of wide digital illiteracy in Greece, the phenomenon is significantly higher among the senior interviewees. As a result, interviewees have minimal access to the extracted stories and the formed narratives. Apart from issues in building rapport with the interviewee, serious ethical questions arise as well. Although, “Giving Back” is considered an indispensable part of social research, due to the nature of the project, the researchers are “receiving” without “reciprocating” the trust. Despite the general praise of digital access, born-digital collections present structural inequalities and ethical research related issues.
