Jessica Hardin
Curriculum Vitae
Rochester Institute of Technology
One Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623
224 Milburn Street
Rochester, NY 14607
jahgss@rit.edu – www.jessica-hardin.com _________________________________________________________________________
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Anthropology, Brandeis University, 2014
M.A. Anthropology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Brandeis University, 2011
B.A. History, magna cum laude, Fordham University, 2004
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2023- Honorable Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Chair, Associate Professor, Director in International and Global Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology
2020- Affiliate Faculty, Center for Global Health, Arizona State University
2019-23 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Rochester Institute of Technology
2014-19 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Pacific University
2011-12 Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Samoa
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2021 SturtzSreetharan, Cindi, Alexandra Brewis, Jessica Hardin, Sarah Trainer and Amber Wutich. Fat in Four Cultures: A Global Ethnography of Weight in Samoa, Paraguay, Japan and the US. “Teaching Culture” series. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
2019 Faith and the Pursuit of Health: Cardiometabolic Disorders in Samoa. “Health, Inequality, and Social Justice” series. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Peer Reviewed Edited Collections
2016 Hillary Kaell and Jessica Hardin. “Ritual Risk and Emergent Efficacy: Ethnographic Studies in Christian Ritual.” Special issue of Journal of Contemporary Religion 31(3).
2013 Megan McCullough and Jessica A. Hardin. Reconstructing Obesity: The Meaning of Measures and the Measure of Meanings. New York: Berghahn Books.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Forthcoming. Negrón, Rosalyn, Amber Wutich, H. Russell Bernard, Alissa Ruth, Katherine Mayfour, Alexandra Brewis, Barbara Piperata, Melissa Beresford, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Pardis Mahdavi, Jessica Hardin, Rebecca Zarger, Krista Harper, James Holland Jones, Clarence C. Gravlee, and Bryan Brayboy. “Ethnographic Methods Training Norms and Practices and the Future of American Anthropology.” American Anthropologist.
2023 Hardin, Jessica, Dion Enari, Tarryn Phillips, Tausala Aiavao, Ramona Boodoosingh, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Pakilau Manase Lua, Tauaitala Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, Sala Maatasesa Samuelu Matthes, Falelua Maua, Mike Poltorak, Amerita Ravuvu, John Taylor, Seini Taufa, Gade Waqa. “Developing Trust in Collaborative Research: Utilizing Indigenous Pacific methodologies to create dialogue within research teams.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 35(8): 529-531.
2023 Hardin, Jessica. “The Knowing Body: Moving materialities in Pentecostal women’s health mentorship in Samoa.” American Anthropologist 125(2): 239-251.
2023 Hardin, Jessica, Abril Saldaña-Tejeda, Alyshia Gálvez, Emily Yates-Doerr, Hanna Garth, Maggie Dickinson, Megan Carney, and Natali Valdez. “Short Take: Duo-ethnographic Methods: A Feminist Take on Collaborative Research.” Field Methods 35(4): 409-413.
2022 Ruth, A., K. Woolard, J. Hardin, T. Sangaramoorthy, A. Wutich, HR. Bernard, A. Brewis, M. Beresford, C. SturtzSreetharan, BMKJ Brayboy, HJF Dengah II, CC Gravlee, G. Guest, K. Harper, P. Mahdavi, SM. Mattison, M. Moritz, R. Negrón, BA. Piperata, JG. Snodgrass and R. Zarger. Teaching Ethnography: The State of the Art. Human Organization 8(4): 401-412.
2022 Valdez, Natali, Carney, Megan A., Maggie Dickinson, Alyshia Gálvez, Hanna Garth, Jessica Hardin, Abril Saldaña, and Emily Yates-Doerr. “Duoethnography as Transformative Praxis: Conversations about Nourishment and Coercion in the COVID-era Academy.” Feminist Anthropology 3(1): 92-105.
2022 Ruth, Alissa, Katherine Mayfour, Thurka Sangaramoorthy, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Melissa Beresford, Alexandra Brewis, H. Russell Bernard, Meskerem Z. Glegziabher, Jessica Hardin, Krista Harper, Pardis Mahdavi, Jeffrey G. Snodgrass, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Amber Wutich. “Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation.” Teaching Anthropology 11(2): 59-72.
2022 Trainer, Sarah, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis and Jessica Hardin. “Fat is all my fault: Globalized metathemes of body self-blame.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 36(1): 5-26.
2021 Hardin, Jessica. “Life before Vegetables: Nutrition, Cash and Subjunctive Health in Samoa.” Cultural Anthropology 36(3): 428–457. Winner of the Rudolf Virchow Award, Society for Medical Anthropology.
2021 Wutich, Amber, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Sarah Trainer, Jessica Hardin, Alexandra Brewis. “Metatheme analysis: A qualitative approach to comparative and multi-sited research.” International Journal of Social Research Methods 20: 1-11.
2020 “Ceaseless Healing and Never-Natural Disaster.” Vital Topics Forum: “Chronic Disaster Reimagining Noncommunicable Disease.” American Anthropologist 122(3): 650-651.
2020 Trainer, Sarah, Jessica Hardin, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Alex Brewis. “Worry-nostalgia: Anxieties around the fading of local cuisines and foodways.” Gastronomica 20(2): 67-78.
2019 “’It’s almost like paying for praying’: Giving Critiques and the Discursive Management of Denominational Difference.” Anthropological Quarterly 92(4): 1099-1122. Special issue: “Institutions, Infrastructures, and Religious Sociality,” edited by Courtney Handman and Minna Opas.
2019 Garth, Hanna and Jessica Hardin. “On the Limitations of Barriers: Social Visibility, Fear of Consequences and Weight Management in Cuba and Samoa.” Social Science & Medicine (239). Doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112501
2019 Hardin, Jessica and Christina Ting Kwauk. “Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation.” The Contemporary Pacific 31(2): 381-415.
2019 “’Father Released Me’: Accelerating Care, Temporal Repair, and Ritualized Friendship among Pentecostal Women in Samoa.” American Ethnologist 46(2): 150-161.
2018 Hardin, Jessica, Amy McLennan, and Alexandra Brewis. “Body size, body norms and some unintended consequences of obesity intervention in the Pacific islands.” Annals of Human Biology 45(3): 285-294. Special issue: “Human Biology in the Pacific,” edited by Nicola Hawley and Stephen McGarvey.
2018 “Embedded Narratives: Metabolic Disorders and Christian Conversion in Samoa.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 32(2): 22-41.
2016 Hillary Kaell and Jessica Hardin. “Ritual Risk and Emergent Efficacy: Ethnographic Studies in Christian Ritual.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 31(3): 323-334.
2016 “Challenging Authority, Averting Risk, Creating Futures: Intersectionality and Interpreting Christian Ritual in Samoa.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 31(3): 379-391.
2016 “‘Healing is a Done Deal’: Temporality and Metabolic Healing Among Evangelical Christians in Samoa.” Medical Anthropology 35(2): 105-118.
2015 Hardin, Jessica and Christina Ting Kwauk. “Producing Markets, Producing People: Local Food, Financial Prosperity, and Health in Samoa.” Food, Culture & Society 18(3): 519-539.
2015 “Christianity, Fat Talk, and Samoan Pastors: Rethinking the Fat-Positive-Fat-Stigma Framework.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 4(2): 178-196. Special Issue: “Religion and Fat = Protestant Christianity and Weight Loss? On the Intersections of Fat Studies and Religious Studies,” edited by Lynne Gerber, Susan Hill and LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant.
2015 “Everyday Translation: Health Practitioners’ Perspectives on Obesity and Metabolic Disorders in Samoa.” Critical Public Health 25(2): 125-138.
2012 Dryden, Eileen, Jessica Hardin, Julia McDonald, Elsie Taveras, and Karen Hacker. “Electronic Decision Supports for Obesity Prevention.” Clinical Pediatrics 51(5): 490-497.
Peer Reviewed Book Chapters
Forthcoming. Boodoosingh, Ramona, Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Tausala Aiavao, Uila Laifa Lima, Falelua Maua and Jessica Hardin. “What matters to me? – Evolving self-definitions of wellbeing during the pandemic.” Narratives of Well-being, edited by Tarryn Phillips, Timothy Jones, Natalie Araujo and John Taylor. Palgrave.
Forthcoming. Corwin, Anna and Jessica Hardin. “Religion and Medicine: Productive Contrasts and their Limitations.” Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion, edited by Joel Robbins and Simon Coleman. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
2024 Marsters, Caleb Panapa Edward and Jessica Hardin, “Strategies for teaching an Indigenous methodology.” In The Handbook of Teaching Qualitative and Mixed Research Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide for Instructors, edited by A. Ruth, A. Wutich, and H.R. Bernard. Oxford, England: Routledge.
2021 “Christianity, Fat Talk, and Samoan Pastors: Rethinking the Fat-Positive-Fat-Stigma Framework.” Fat Religion: Protestant Christianity and the Construction of the Fat Body, edited by Lynne Gerber, Susan Hill and LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant. New York: Routledge. Reprint of original article.
2021 “Everyday Translation: Health Practitioners’ Perspectives on Obesity and Metabolic Disorders in Samoa.” In Why Food Matters, edited by Melissa Caldwell. London, UK: Bloomsbury. Reprint of original article.
2016 “‘God is Your Health’: Healing Metabolic Disorders in Samoa.” In Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal in Australia and the Pacific, edited Carolyn Schwarz and Fiona Magowan, 98-126. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
2016 “Claiming Pule, Manifesting Mana: Ordinary Ethics and Pentecostal Self-making in Samoa.” In New Mana: Transformations of a Classic Concept in Pacific Languages and Cultures, edited by Matt Tomlinson and Ty Kawika Tengan, 257-284. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press.
2013 "Fasting for Health, Fasting for God: Samoan Evangelical Christian Responses to Obesity and Chronic Disease." In Reconstructing Obesity: The Meaning of Measures and the Measure of Meanings, edited by Megan McCullough and Jessica A. Hardin, 107-130. New York: Berghahn Books.
2013 Megan McCullough and Jessica Hardin. “Introduction.” In Reconstructing Obesity: The Meaning of Measures and the Measure of Meanings, edited by Megan McCullough and Jessica Hardin, 1-26. New York: Berghahn Books.
Book and Film Reviews
2023 Review of Paxson (2023). Eating Beside Ourselves: Thresholds of Foods and Bodies. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 37(4): 422-423.
2023 Review of Mol (2021). Eating in Theory. Anthropological Quarterly 96(1): 193-196.
2022 Review of Weaver (2018). Sugar and Tension: Diabetes and Gender in Modern India. American Journal of Human Biology 34(1): e23587.
2020 Review of Solomon (2016). Metabolic Living: Food, Fat and the Absorption of Illness in India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 26: 203-204.
2018 Review of Kimura and Suryanata (2016). Food and Power in Hawai’i: Visions of Food Democracy. Pacific Affairs 91(2): 435-437.
2017 Review of Burchardt (2015). Faith in the Time of AIDS: Religion, Biopolitics, and Modernity in South Africa. Medicine Anthropology Theory 4(5): 108–111.
2016 “Incommensurability, Fat, and Obesity: Ethnography of Global Health.” Review of Yates-Doerr (2015). The Weight of Obesity: Hunger and Global Health in Postwar Guatemala. Biosocieties 11: 271–274.
2015 “’From Despair to Hope’: Antiretroviral Therapy, Redemption, and Christianity in Africa.” Review of van Dijk, Dilger, Burchardt, and Rasing, eds (2014). Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa. Marginala: Los Angeles Review of Books. August 18.
2015 Review of Biltekoff (2013). Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health. Allegra Lab: Anthropology, Law, Art, & World. April 15.
2015 Review of Saethre (2013). Illness Is a Weapon: Indigenous Identity and Enduring Afflictions. American Ethnologist 42(2): 381-382.
2015 Review of Jutel and Dew, eds (2014). Social Issues in Diagnosis: An Introduction for Students and Clinicians. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 29(1) b7-b9.
2014 Review of Joshi (2012). A Matter of Belief: Christian Conversion and Healing in North-East India. Anthrocybib. June 9.
2014 Review of Suhr and Otto (2011). Unity through Culture. Anthropology News, June.
2014 Review of Patterson and Macintyre, eds (2011). Managing Modernity in the Western Pacific. The Contemporary Pacific 26(1): 249-251.
2013 Review of Wentzell (2013). Maturing Masculinities: Aging, Chronic Illness, and Viagra in Mexico. Association of Feminist Anthropology Book Reviews.
2013 Review of Gershon (2012). No Family is an Island: Cultural Expertise among Samoans in Diaspora. Pacific Affairs 86(3): 72-73.
2013 Review of Mendenhall (2013). Syndemic Suffering: Social Distress, Depression, and Diabetes Among Mexican Immigrant Women. Somatosphere. October 4.
Under review
Hardin, Jessica, Ramona Boodoosingh, Tausala Aiavao, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Uila Laifa Lima, Falelua Maua, and Tauaitala Lees. “Weighty Bodies.” The Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of the Body. Cambridge University Press, edited by Adeline Masquelier and Andrew McDowell.
Jessica Hardin, Anna Carter, Lee Smith, Pema Lama, Anna Pasquantonio, Makenna Hakim. “Making Complexity Stable: Student Perspectives on Engineering Curriculum.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Submitted February 2024.
In Preparation
Hardin, Jessica. Complications: On as-if futures and the failures of diabetes prevention in the Pacific Islands. Book manuscript, 2025 submission.
Hardin, Jessica and Emily Mendenhall. Living Well with Sugar: Worlding Diabetes Across Cultures. Edited collection, to be submitted to University of Toronto Press. Spring proposal submission.
Non-Peer Reviewed Publications
2020 Cromer, Risa, Jessica Hardin, Zoe Nyssa. “Reckoning with Saving.” Coming to Terms, Journal for the Anthropology of North America 23(1): 67-69.
2020 Burnett, Diana, Megan A. Carney, Lauren Carruth, Sarah Chard, Maggie Dickinson, Alyshia Gálvez, Hanna Garth, Jessica Hardin, Adele Hite, Heather Howard, Lenore Manderson, Emily Mendenhall, Abril Saldaña-Tejeda, Dana Simmons, Natali Valdez, Emily Vasquez, Megan Warin, Emily Yates-Doerr. Letter to the Editor: Anthropologists Respond to The Lancet EAT Commission. Bionatura: Latin American Journal of Biotechnology and Life Sciences. February 2, 2020.
2018 Hardin, Jessica, and Hanna Garth. 2018. “Fat Consequences.” Anthropology News website, January 24, 2018. DOI: 10.1111/AN.741.
2015 Coordinated and contributed to the Field Notes series on “Fat.” Cultural Anthropology.
2014 “Rethinking Fat.” Society for Medical Anthropology Section News. Anthropology News 55(9).
2014 “Good Foods and Foods Good for Health: Hunger and Obesity in Samoa.” Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition Blog. March 20.
2013 “AES in Today’s Anthropology: An Interview with Sally Merry.” Anthropology News 54(5).
AWARDS, GRANTS and FELLOWSHIPS
External
[2024] Australian Research Council, Discovery Project (DP230102606), Co-PI, “Trust in Pacific Healthcare: Transforming research, policy and practice,” with John Taylor, Tarryn Phillips, Amerita Ravuvu, Gade Waqa, Ramona Boodoosingh
2023 USAID Pacific American Fund, “Diabetes and Disaster Resilience: Training Traditional Healers and Family-Based Carers on Diabetic wound management and developing WASH Service” with Ramona Boodoosingh, Saunima’a Fulu-Aiolupotea, Taua’tala Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, and Falelua Maua [declined]
2023 Fulbright Scholar Award, New Zealand, “Cultural notions of time and health outcomes: Medical-decision making among New Zealand Samoans,” hosted by the School of Pacific Studies, University of Auckland
2021 Wenner Gren Post-PhD Grant (Grant number 5206591954), “Time, timescale and responsibility: Care decision making for diabetes complications in Samoa”
2021 National Science Foundation, Cultural Anthropology Program Senior Research Award (NSF BCS 2017195), Primary Investigator, “Notions of time and medical decision-making”
2019 “Mapping Medical Landscapes: A pilot study,” LaTrobe University, Australia. Partnered with Tarryn Phillips and John Taylor
2018 Arnold L. Graves and Lois S. Graves Award in the Humanities
2017 Summer Course for Research Design, National Science Foundation, University of Florida
2013 Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Placement Grant for the Diabetes Association of Samoa
2012 Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (Grant number 8412)
2010 Fulbright-Hays Advanced Samoan Language Abroad
2009 Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research Grant
Internal
[2025] Paul A. and Francena L. Miller Faculty Fellowship Award, RIT
2023 FLEA (Faculty Led Education Abroad) Grant, RIT
2023 Faculty Research Fund, College of Liberal Arts, RIT
2022 Connect Grant, ADVANCE RIT
2022 Faculty Education and Development Grant, RIT
2022 College of Liberal Arts and College of Design Seed Funding, RIT
2022 Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Rochester Institute of Technology
2020 Grant Writers Bootcamp Seed Funding, Sponsored Research Services, RIT
2020 Connect Grant, ADVANCE RIT
2018 PRISM Grant, Pacific University
2017 Faculty Development Grant, Pacific University
2017 PRISM Grant, Pacific University
2017 Target, Digital Pedagogy Grant, Pacific University
2016 Civic Engagement Mini-Grant, Pacific University
2015 PRISM Grant, Pacific University
2014 Civic Engagement Mini-Grant, Pacific University
2011 Provost Award, Brandeis University
2011 Graduate Student Travel Award, Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University
2011 Mellon Dissertation Research Grant, Brandeis University
2011 Graduate Student Association Award, Brandeis University
2010 Women's and Gender Study Graduate Grant, Brandeis University
2009 Mellon Dissertation Research Grant, Brandeis University
2009 Sachar Award, Brandeis University
2008 Fannie and Simon Shamroth Endowed Fellowship (5 years), Brandeis University
2008 Otto and Mynette Bresky Endowed Fellowship (5 years), Brandeis University
INVITED TALKS
[2024] “Doing-Duo: A Collaborative and Feminist Method as Praxis.” Spark: Centre for Social Research Innovation, McMaster University, Canada. March 15.
2023 “Incongruous Temporalities: The Relationship between Prevention Efforts and Diabetes Complications” with Tausala Aiavao, Ramona Boodoosingh, Saunima’a Fulu-Aiolupotea, Taua’tala Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, Sala Ma’atasesa Samuelu Matthes, and Falelua Maua. Te Wānanga o Waipapa, School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies, University of Auckland. May 24.
2023 “Living with Diabetic Complications: The Normalization of Diabetic Symptoms and the Limits of Prevention.” Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. May 11.
2023 Roundtable convenor with Albert Refiti, “Tā: Roundtable Talanoa.” Vā Korero 2023 Lecture Series Roundtable, Vā Moana Research Cluster, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. May 5.
2023 “Medical Decision Making around Diabetic Wound Complications: Understanding Social and Cultural Contexts for Healthcare Choices.” Office of the Associate Dean Pacific, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Te Papa Ako o Tai Tonga, South Auckland Campus, University of Auckland, New Zealand. May 2.
2023 “On the Failure of Prevention and Health Research in Samoa” with Tausala Aiavao, Ramona Boodoosingh, Saunima’a Fulu-Aiolupotea, Taua’tala Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, Sala Ma’atasesa Samuelu Matthes, and Falelua Maua. School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. April 12.
2023 “Incongruous Temporalities: How Chronic Disease Prevention Efforts Drive Complications.” Department of Anthropology, University of Waikato, New Zealand. March 30.
2022 “Studying Time, Working Collaboratively: Ethnographic Teams in the Study of Diabetes Complications” with Tausala Aiavao, Ramona Boodoosingh, Saunima’a Fulu-Aiolupotea, Taua’tala Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, Sala Ma’atasesa Samuelu Matthes, and Falelua Maua. Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa, Samoa. September 15.
2020 “Spectral Foods: Disrupted Foodways and Memories of Health Otherwise in Samoa.” SUNY Geneseo. February 19.
2019 “The Knowing Body: Analytic Orientation, Samoan Pentecostals and Embodied Critique.” University of Edinburgh, UK. December 16.
2019 “Spectral Foods: Disrupted Foodways and Memories of Health Otherwise in Samoa.” SOAS, UK. December 13.
2019 “The Knowing Body: Samoan Pentecostals and Embodied Critique.” University at Buffalo (SUNY). October 16.
2019 “Moving Materialities: Words, Food, and Dance.” University of Adelaide, Australia. September 12.
2019 “Embodied Critique: Felt Inequalities in Pentecostal Practice.” Monash University, Australia. September 11.
2019 “Health Temporalities: Diabetes Amputations, Symptoms and Healing Trajectories.” Traditional Medicine and Mental Health Symposium. Le Trobe University, Australia. September 9-10.
2019 “Eating Religiously, Dancing Religiously: Polynesian Zumba and Women’s Testimony.” Eating Religiously: Food and Faith in the 21st Century Workshop. May 22-24.
2019 “Salvation and Metabolism: Cardiometabolic Disorders in Samoa.” Center for Regional Food Studies, University of Arizona. March 26.
2019 “Places and their objects: Plantations and the Problem of Vegetables in Samoa.” Master Seminar, University of Arizona. March 26.
2017 “Biospirituality and Discerning Risk.” Ecology and Culture University Seminar, Columbia University. October 5.
2017 “Freedom and the Impossibilities of Health Responsibility in Samoa.” Anthropology Seminar, University of Auckland. June 1.
2017 “Discerning Risk: How Cardiometabolic Macro-trends Make Invisible Well-being Invisible in Samoa.” Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Washington. March 31.
2016 “Cultivating Health, Deferring Agency: Samoan Christian Perspectives of Chronic Metabolic Illness.” Medical Anthropology and Global Health Seminar, University of Washington. October 12.
2015 “Rethinking the Fat-Positive-Fat-Stigma Framework.” Obesity Solutions Research Group, Arizona State University. September 18.
2014 “Embedded Narratives: Pentecostal Conversion and Metabolic Illness in Samoa.” Ethnography and Social Theory Colloquium Series, Yale University. December 4.
2013 “Ethnography, Chronic Disease, and Community-Based Research.” Population Science Discussion Group, Dana Farber Cancer Institute. July 24.
2013 “Conversion as Well-Being Wayfinding: Samoan Responses to Heart Attacks, Strokes, and Sepsis.” University Seminar in the Anthropology of Religion. Teachers College, Columbia University. January 31.
2012 “Intersecting Agendas: An Ethnography of Evangelical Churches and Public Health in Samoa.” Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa, Samoa. October 10.
2012 “Faith and Health: Perspectives on Non-Communicable Diseases in Samoa.” Ministry of Health, Samoa. May 15.
2010 “Understanding Anapogi [Fasting]: Preliminary Observations.” Department of Social Science. National University of Samoa, Samoa. July 20.
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Panels Organized and Discussant Service
[2024] “Collaborative Research: Knowledge, Impact, and Repair.” Association for the Social Anthropology of Oceania. Virtual Conference, January 29-Feburary 2.
2023 Roundtable Organizer with Sophie Chao, “Metabolic (in)justice: nutrition & nourishment in the teeth of racial colonial capitalism.” American Anthropological Association, Toronto, Canada, November 16-18.
2023 Tausala Aiavao, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Ramona Boodoosingh, Jessica Hardin, Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Uila Laifa Lima, Falelua Maua. “Finding middle ground for improved patient care – discussions between traditional healers and nurses in Samoa.” Measina Conference, Apia, Samoa, October 26-27.
2022 Discussant, “Religious and Spiritual Influences on Human Biology: The Unsettled Landscapes of Bodies in Culture.” American Anthropological Association, Seattle, November 9-13.
2022 “The After/lives of Pacific Plantations,” with Hiʻilei Julia Hobart. Informal Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, January 25-30.
2022 “Trust and Care in Health and Research,” with Mike Poltorak, Tarryn Phillips and John Taylor. Working Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, January 25-30.
2021 “(Re)animated Vitalities: Contestation and Controversy in the Machine and Garden,” with Schuyler Marquez. American Anthropological Association, Baltimore, November 17-21.
2021 “Trust and Care in Pacific Health Systems,” with Mike Poltorak, Tarryn Phillips and John Taylor. Informal Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, February 3-6 [virtual].
2020 Discussant, “The Healer and the Psychiatrist: A film by Mike Poltorak.” SVA Film & Media Festival, DER sponsored, December 10 [virtual].
2019 Discussant, “Temporalities of Rehabilitation.” American Anthropological Association, Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 20-24.
2019 Roundtable: “Saving: Temporalities of Change, Redemption, and Preservation,” with Risa Cromer. American Anthropological Association Roundtable, Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 20-24.
2019 “Presumed Utility: Translating and Unpacking Applied Lexicons.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Portland, March 19-23.
2018 Discussant, “Resisting Biomedicine: Politics, Practices, and Logics of Care.” American Anthropological Association, San Jose, November 14-18.
2018 “Bodies and their Materials: Creating and Critiquing “Good” Care,” with Chelsea Wentworth. American Anthropological Association, San Jose, November 14-18.
2016 “Saving: Evidence of/for Preserving and Restoring Life, Health, and Values,” with Risa Cromer. American Anthropological Association, Minneapolis, November 16-20.
2016 “Friendship and Peer Relationships,” with Mary Good. Working Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, San Diego, February 9-13.
2015 “The Clinical Way: Exploring Biomedicine and Public Health in the Pacific,” with Barbara Andersen. European Society for Oceanists, Brussels, June 24-27.
2015 “Friendship and Peer Relationships,” with Mary Good. Informal Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Santa Fe, February 5-8.
2014 “Medicalizing Religion, Spiritualizing Medicine: Producing Knowledge at the Intersections.” American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., December 3-7.
2014 “Visibilization and Concealment: Social Critique and Anthropologies of Value.” American Ethnological Society, Boston, April 10-12.
2014 “Temporalities of Metabolic Disorders: Considering Time in Illness Experience and Interventions,” with Rochelle Rosen. Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque, March 18-22.
2014 “Friendship and Peer Relationships,” with Mary Good. Informal Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Kona, February 5-8.
2013 “Institutional Publics and Futures: How Social Support Emerges from Friendship and Peerhood,” with Anna Corwin. SPA Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 20-24.
2013 “Ethnographies of Ritual Failure and Contestation.” American Ethnological Society, Chicago, April 11-13.
2011 “Healing Legacies: Bridging Medical Anthropology and the Anthropology of Religion,” with Anna Corwin. SAR Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, Montreal, November 16-20.
2010 “Circulating Discourses: Obesity, Body Size, Fatness, and Anthropological Debates about Methods, Ethics, and Representation in Obesity Research,” with Megan McCullough. SMA/SAFN Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 16-21.
2009 “Articulations and Experiences: Biomedicines in the Asia Pacific Region.” Society for Medical Anthropology conference, Yale University, New Haven, September 24-27.
Papers
2023 Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Boodoosingh, Ramona, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Tausala Aiavao, Uila Laifa Lima Falelua Maua, and Jessica Hardin “Finding middle ground for improved patient care – discussions between traditional healers and nurses in Samoa.” Measina Conference, National University of Samoa, Apia, Samoa, October 26-27.
2022 Boodoosingh, Ramona, Jessica Hardin, Sala Maatasesa Samuelu Matthes, Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Tausala Aiavao, Uila Laifa Lima and Falelua Maua. “Starting from the beginning - Using Traditional Research Methodologies as one of the mechanisms to decolonize research in Samoa.” Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (DevNet), Auckland, December 7-9 [virtual].
2022 Roundtable participant, “The Camp Model: Unsettling Anthropological Methods.” American Anthropological Association, Seattle, November 9-13.
2022 Boodoosingh, Ramona, Jessica Hardin, Sala Maatasesa Samuelu Matthes, Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Tausala Aiavao, Uila Laifa Lima and Falelua Maua. “What matters to me? – Evolving self-definitions of wellbeing during the pandemic.” Narratives of Well-being, hybrid conference. LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia, September 1-2.
2022 Roundtable participant, “Revolutionary Method: Duo-Ethnography as Transformative Praxis.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Salt Lake City, March 22-26.
2021 “The Knowing Body: Moving materialities in Pentecostal women’s health mentorship in Samoa.” American Anthropological Association, Baltimore, November 17-21.
2021 Roundtable participant, “Exploring Religious Intelligences: A conversation on the concept of religious intelligences and the anthropology of religion.” Society for the Anthropology of Religion, May 14-16 [virtual].
2021 “Imagined Timescales: Diabetes prevention as a driver of complications.” Chronic Living: Quality, vitality and health in the 21st century, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, March 4-6 [virtual].
2020 “Diabetes prevention as a driver of complications.” Global Health Association @ RIT, Rochester, NY, February 22.
2020 “From affect to spectrality: Vegetables and Health Otherwise in Samoa.” Association for Social Anthropology of Oceania, Hilo, Hawai’i, January 22-25.
2019 “Eating Religiously, Dancing Religiously: Polynesian Zumba and Women’s Testimony.” American Anthropological Association, Vancouver, Canada, November 20-24.
2019 “On the limitations of barriers: Social Consequences and Obesity Interventions in Cuba and Samoa,” with Hanna Garth. Society for Applied Anthropology, Portland, March 19-23.
2019 ““Life was cheaper. We were happy”: The Affective Force of Vegetables and Plantations.” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Auckland, New Zealand. February 13-16.
2018 “Discerning Ambiguous Risks.” European Society for Oceanists, Cambridge, UK, December 7-10.
2018 “Ceaseless Healing, on Christian Practice and Never Natural Disaster.” American Anthropological Association, San Jose, November 14-18.
2018 Roundtable participant, “Reimagining discovery.” Radical Imagination, Oregon State University, Eugene, April 6-8.
2018 Roundtable participant, “Mother Antihero: Reports from the 21st century field.” Society for Cultural Anthropology. Virtual conference, April 19-21.
2018 “Elemental Eating: Public Health and Value in Samoa.” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. New Orleans, January 30-Februay 3.
2017 “Pentecostal Freedom Discourses: Health Responsibility and Negotiating Agency in Samoa.” Washington, DC, November 29-December 3.
2017 “Sisters in Christ: Gendered Mentorship in Global Christianity.” Society for
the Anthropology of Religion. New Orleans, May 15-17.
2017 “The Other Repugnant Other.” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Lihu’e, Kaua’i, February 7-11.
2016 “Saved/Healed: Samoan Pentecostalism and Metabolic Evidence.” American Anthropological Association, Minneapolis, November 16-20.
2016 “Applying Christian Logic: Fat, Metabolic Disorders, and Social Support.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada, March 29-April 2.
2016 “Sisters in Christ: Mentoring Friendships and Church Social Organization.” Working Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, San Diego, February 9-13.
2015 “Freedom and Stress: Pentecostal Expressions of Christian Difference in Samoa.” American Anthropological Association, Denver, November 18-22.
2015 “Discerning the Sick Body: Embodied Evidence and Critical Christianity in Samoa.” Society for the Anthropology of Religion, San Diego, April 16-19.
2015 “New Food in Samoa: Elemental Negotiations of Food Categories” with Christina Kwauk. Working Session II. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Santa Fe, February 3-8.
2014 “Spiritual Etiologies: Evangelical Christian Evidence of Inequalities and Metabolic Disorders in Samoa.” American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., December 3-7.
2014 “Critique and the (un)Productivity of Wealth: Gift-giving, Tithing, and Christian Debate in Samoa.” Society for Cultural Anthropology, Detroit, May 9-10.
2014 “’It’s almost like paying for praying’: Alternative Economies of Blessings and Valuation.” American Ethnological Society, Boston, April 10-12.
2014 “The Chronicity of Healing: Conflicting Biomedical and Christian Healing Temporalities.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque, March 18-22.
2014 “New Food in Samoa: Elemental Negotiations of Food Categories,” with Christina Kwauk. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Kona, February 5-8.
2013 “The World Trade Organization Accession of a Pacific Island: Policy Processes and Food System Consequences in Samoa” with Nicholas Petersdorf, Shawn Arita, and Christina Kwauk. Yale Food Systems Symposium, New Haven, October 18-19.
2013 “‘Father released me from her:’ Mentoring Friendships and Gendered Social Support among Evangelical Christians in Samoa.” SPA Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 20-24.
2013 “Engaging the Counterfeit and Developing Worship Style among an Intercessory Prayer Group in Samoa.” American Ethnological Society, Chicago, April 11-13.
2013 “Producing Healthy Food: Negotiating Meaning, Building Exports, and Addressing Obesity in independent Samoa,” with Christina Kwauk. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, San Antonio, February 6-9.
2012 “Mentalities and Priorities: Public Health Struggles with Health and Well-being Approaches to Body Size and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, San Antonio, February 6-9.
2012 “Ai afu [Eating Sweat]: The Mana and Ethics of the Fat Pastor’s Body in Independent Samoa.” American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 14-18.
2012 “Power Lies in the Tongue: Addressing Metabolic Disorders through Fashioning Intentionality among Evangelical Christians in Samoa.” American Ethnological Society, New York City, April 19-21.
2012 “Food Availability and Health Choices: Reconsidering Risk and Reciprocity in Independent Samoa.” Informal Session. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Portland, February 9-11.
2011 “Christian Solutions to Chronic Problems: Healing Diabetes in Samoa.” SAR Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, Montreal, November 16-20.
2011 “Physician’s Perspectives on Electronic Decision Support Alerts for Obesity” with Eileen Dryden, Karen Hacker, Julia McDonald, Elsie Taveras. Poster at The Scientific Meeting of The Obesity Society, Orlando, October 1-5.
2011 “Body Idioms and Fasting: Charismatic Samoan Approaches to Obesity and Chronic Illness.” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Honolulu, February 9-13.
2011 “Transactional Moralities: Charismatic Challenges to Exchange.” Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Honolulu, February 9-13.
2011 “Challenging Exchange, Fashioning Emotions: Learning to Alofa [Love].” Society for Psychological Anthropology, Santa Monica, March 31-April 3.
2010 "Reviewing Samoan Exchange: Personhood & Representation.” European Society for Oceanists conference, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, July 5-8.
2010 “Prayer as a Social Activity” with Alessandro Duranti and Anna Corwin. Discourse Lab, UCLA, Los Angeles, May 19.
2010 “Eating the Word: Fasting and Eating in Making Moral Samoan Persons.” SAFN/SMA Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 16-21.
2009 “Food, Feasting, and Embodiment: Dealing with Chronic Illness and Maintaining Social Relationships in American Samoa.” SAFN Invited Panel. American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia, December 1-6.
2009 "Intersecting Samoan Discourses: Embodiment and Chronic Illness.” Society for Medical Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, September 24-27.
2009 “Shifting Body Ideals, Food Practices, and Health: Samoan Women in Hawaii.” American Ethnological Society, Vancouver, Canada May 13-16.
2009 “Taro or Burgers?: Meals, Space, Place, and Fa'a Samoa [the Samoan way].” Northeastern Anthropological Association, Providence, March 13-14.
2009 “Constructing Social Boundaries: Remaking Fale Aitu [Spirit Theatre] in Hawaii.” Greater Boston Anthropology Consortia, Wellesley College, Wellesley, February 27.
2008 “Folk Knowledge, Medical Canon, and Preventable Disease: American Samoa and Hawaii.” East West Center, Bali, Indonesia, November 13-15.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Brandeis University
Embodied Culture: The Experiential and Textual Body, First Year Seminar (fall 2010, spring 2011)
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (summer 2011)
Anthropology of Gender (summer 2012)
National University of Samoa
Research Methods (spring 2012)
Pacific Island Societies (spring 2012)
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (spring 2012)
Pacific University
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (fall 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
Contemporary Pacific Studies (fall 2015, spring 2019)
Sex, Gender, Culture (fall 2014, 2016)
Good Food: Culture, Consumption, and Production (fall 2014, 2017)
Medicine, Body, and Culture (spring 2015, 2018)
Food, Fat, and Fitness (spring 2016, 2019)
Designing Ethnography (spring 2015, 2018, fall 2018)
Writing Ethnography (fall 2014, 2017, 2018)
Rochester Institute of Technology
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (fall 2019, 2020, 2021, summer 2021)
Culture & Globalization (spring 2020)
Qualitative Research (spring 2020)
Global Public Health (summer 2020, 2021)
Gender & Health (fall 2021, spring 2022)
Designing for Humans (spring 2022, fall 2022)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Peer Review
American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Current Anthropology, Social Science & Medicine, Anthropological Quarterly, Critical Public Health, Anthropology & Medicine, Anthropology & Humanism, Appetite, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Medical Anthropology, Food and Foodways, Anthropological Forum, Journal of Samoan Studies, Suomen Antropologi, Public Health Nutrition, Food, Culture, and Society, Human Organization, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Medicine Anthropology Theory, Australian New Zealand Journal of Public Health, mSystems, Social Science & Medicine Mental Health, Cultural Anthropology, Field Methods, Bloomsbury, Rutgers University Press, Oxford University Press, National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program, W.W. Norton & Company, University of Alabama Press, National Science Foundation Advisory Panel Cultural Anthropology Program
To the Profession
Rudolf Virchow Award Committee, Society for Medical Anthropology, 2023
Clifford Geertz Book Prize committee, 2020
Secretary, Association for Social Anthropology of Oceania, 2017-2020
New York City Pacific Studies Working Group, 2013
Editor, Student Anthropologist, 2011-13
Graduate Student Board Member, American Ethnological Society, 2011-14
Coordinator, CLIC annual conference, UCLA, 2010
Book Review Editor: Popular Anthropology Magazine, 2010
To the University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Selection committee, Kearse Award for undergraduate writing, 2020, 2021
Honors Committee, College of Liberal Arts, 2021-2023
By-laws Review Subcommittee, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts, 2022-2023
Makenzie Salon Advisory Board, 2023-2024
Faculty Senate, Alternate, 2023-2026
Honors Program Faculty Advisory Council, 2023-2025
Pacific University
Civic Engagement Faculty Scholar, 2018-19
Search Committees, Criminal Justice, Law and Society, Assistant Professor (2014, 2019); Sociology, Visiting Assistant Professor, (2014)
Faculty Senate, 2016-2019
Civic Engagement Advisory Council, 2017-2019
Faculty Review Committee, Core Task Force, 2017
Writing-in-the-Discipline Fellow, Teagle Foundation, 2018-19
International and Diverse Perspectives Fellow, Teagle Foundation, 2018-19
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2018 Cultural Expert, Public Defense Services, Oregon
2011-13 Research Consultant, Institute for Community Health
2011 Admissions Writing Evaluator, Brandeis University
2010 Research Assistant to Alessandro Duranti, UCLA
2007-11 Academic Advisor, English Language Learners Program, Brandeis University