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AbstractIn this article, we report on our experience conducting an interdisciplinary project that combined our respective disciplines of anthropology and geography. Our project was conducted as contract research between ourselves (faculty members at California State University, Stanislaus), a local governmental health agency based in Stanislaus County, California, and several undergraduate research assistants. We describe the project, interdisciplinary methodologies, our collaboration with the partner agency in addition to the successes, challenges, benefits, and recommendations for future interdisciplinary work. Through a discussion of these various facets of this research, we hope this project serves as a case study for consideration when conducting interdisciplinary work and/or contract research with governmental agencies. Despite any challenges that may arise from such work, we assert the myriad of benefits and successes which can be produced supersede these difficulties. Ultimately, we assert there is much to gain from interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in conducting such research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to impact the world affecting all aspects of life. Healthcare workers have been hit especially hard and, in many cases, experience negative impacts not only on their physical health but also on their mental and emotional well-being. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has not affected populations equally and this is true in the USA, including healthcare workers. However, these workers have also persevered, drawing on moral resilience to push through challenging situations throughout this pandemic. In this scoping review, we analyzed studies to assess the role of race, ethnicity, and/or culture on the moral resilience of healthcare workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim was to understand the research that has assessed these potential connections and determine best practices for building moral resilience in the face of this global catastrophe. Fourteen articles met inclusion criteria and were analyzed in this review. Following a thematic analysis, several themes emerged including (1) moral resilience and the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) race, ethnicity, and culture among healthcare workers; and (3) building moral resilience. In sum, the findings from the literature indicate a paucity of studies that analyze the role played by race, ethnicity, and/or culture in connection to moral resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community health workers improve health and well-being through, most notably, health education, advocacy, and building individual and community capacity. In spite of these contributions to the health care landscape, these workers are not well integrated within the professional workforce throughout much of the United States. Building on the lens of medical citizenship, I introduce the concept of professional citizenship, which elucidates the belongingness of a group within a professional workforce. Drawing on this framing, I detail the lack of professional belongingness among community health workers in Indiana and the emergent issues that arose via professionalization including: the potential creation of a hierarchy, changes to core roles, and the (in)accessibility of the position due to the requirements for the community health worker certification course. Additionally, I situate these issues within race, ethnicity, gender, and class in examining their effects on the professionalization of these workers. The findings presented in this article can be utilized by policymakers, public health programs, and other employing organizations as community health workers undergo professionalization. Given the poor health outcomes in Indiana, these workers are poised to make significant contributions to the health of their communities—with careful consideration for potential ramifications via professionalization.

AbstractReligious conviction has played a prominent role in many activist movements throughout the United States. In this article, I detail one social justice organization’s enactment of activism called la fe en acción(faith in action). This approach was nuanced from being simply “activism” but one that, according to participants, was more strategic and longer lasting. La fe en acción served as the central strategy utilized by this organization in order to garner public and political support for comprehensive immigration reform. A crucial component within this approach included the sharing of testimonios(testimonials) of participants. While this form of activism was intended to garner the participation of all people—including undocumented immigrants—for some, structural vulnerability hindered their ability to participate. Overall, I explore the positive and negative aspects of this approach as elaborated from data gathered during attempts to garner support for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013.

AbstractThe use of community health workers (CHWs) as distinct members of the health care workforce has waxed and waned throughout the last fifty years in the United States. As medical laypersons that are often members of the communities they work within, CHWs are poised to create significant health impacts through their primary roles as health educators, advocates, and by serving as a bridge to the biomedical realm for marginalized communities. While several states have well-established CHW programs, many have not integrated CHWs into their workforce. This article outlines several applied findings from a dissertation project in Indiana, a state on the cusp of introducing legislation and CHW development to further implement this position into the health care workforce. The applied findings discussed in this article include the potentialities, challenges, and future sustainability of CHWs following eleven months of fieldwork and fifty semi-structured interviews.

Many individuals in the United States continue to seek out complementary and alternative approaches to health. In this exploratory project, I examined the use of complementary and alternative approaches to health from the perspective of several practitioners in Tampa, Florida. I conducted interviews with alternative health practitioners in order to elucidate several of these practices, the main health issues of their clients, and their approaches to treating these issues. Among the alternative health practitioners surveyed included self-identified shamans, mambos, and babalawos. Several of the biggest health concerns sought out by their clients included chronic health issues and mental health disorders. Additionally, several of these alternative health practices could be considered as a preventative form of health care. Finally, I offer several future directions for research on this topic as well as some practical applications for applied anthropology.

In early June 2013, several of Indiana's largest businesses and prominent religious leaders from various Christian denominations came together to pledge their public support for the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (also known as S.744). Together, these business and religious leaders gathered at the headquarters of Indianapolis' own pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly and Company, along with volunteers from the grassroots organization known as the Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (IndyCAN). IndyCAN and its branch, the Campaign for Citizenship, had organized this meeting between these religious and business leaders in order to gain the support of some of Indianapolis' most prominent figures for the new immigration reform bill.