Social Science and Religion Network- Research
THE NEWEST AFRICAN AMERICANS
The Newest African Americans: Identity and Incorporation among Recent West African Immigrants to the U.S., Marilyn Halter, Co-Director with Violet Johnson (Agnes Scott College, Department of History). Bridging the fields of immigration, ethnic and African American studies, this research project explores issues of cultural identity formation and socioeconomic incorporation nationwide among the understudied population of immigrants and refugees from West Africa to the United States during the last thirty years. It explores the intricate patterns of adaptation and incorporation among the immigrants and their children; the evolution of new forms of transnational connections with Africa and Europe; and the impact of the recent postcolonial and voluntary immigration of West Africans on the changing meanings of “African Americanness.” Areas of study include patterns of settlement, work—giving special attention to the formation of a small businesses and the ethnic marketplace, education, and the role of the religion, community, and associational life as well as festive culture.
SPIRITUAL NARRATIVES IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Spiritual Narratives in Everyday Life, funded by the Templeton Foundation, Nancy Ammerman, principal investigator. Hosted by BU’s Institute on Religion, Culture, and World Affairs, in partnership with the Center on Myth and Ritual in American Life, at Emory University. This project seeks to generate data with which to think more creatively about the way religion works in American society, examining the prevalence, variations, and forms of religious consciousness and action across social sectors and in two different cultural locations – Boston and Atlanta. Data collection will involve a team of researchers in each location and will extend from August, 2006, through June, 2007, with early reports of results expected in 2008.
THE HEALING LANDSCAPE
The Healing Landscape Project, funded in part by the Ford Foundation, Linda Barnes, director, includes the following on-going research:
(1) Medical Interpreters as Cultural Brokers This project explores the many ways that medical interpreters work within clinical settings in ways that facilitate cross-cultural understanding between patients, and their physicians and nurses. Many of these interpretive engagements include the explanation of religiously pluralistic practices and related understandings of illness, therapeutic interventions, and healing.
(2) Muslim Patients and the Cultures of Healing in Boston This project involves interviews with Muslim patients and family members, focusing in illness and health-care experiences, sensitivities, and perceived needs.
(3) The Profession of Islam and the Health Care Profession in Boston This project includes interviews with Muslim healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, social workers, imams), focused on their understanding of vocation, the significance of their Islamic heritage, and the integration of religious and professional identities in practice and in community leadership.
(4) Portraying Islam: A Content Analysis of “Muslims” in Medline-indexed abstracts In this project, we have analyzed 2,360 abstracts, located by searching through articles indexed in OVID MEDLINE from 1966-August 2005, using the key words “Islam” and “Muslim”. We are analyzing these abstracts to identify manifest and latent themes, and to determine how Muslims are represented in the medical literature.
(5) Chinese Medicine and Healing in America This study builds on Barnes’s previous scholarship on the social history of Chinese medicine and healing in the West up through the mid-nineteenth century. She is currently engaged in a study of the period between 1849 and 2004, to produce an interdisciplinary monograph that examines the presence and meanings of Chinese healing traditions in light of histories of medicine, religion, and race.
ENGAGED RELIGIONS & PUBLIC GOODS IN CHINESE SOCIETIES
Engaged Religions and Public Goods in Chinese Societies, funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Rob Weller, director. This project examines new roles that religious groups are taking in areas like old age care, road or school construction, and medical care. The project looks at three of the most important traditions in the Chinese context: village-based folk religion, Christianity, and Buddhism. All three are changing their relations to local communities and the state in response to new opportunities. The study is looking at Chinese communities in Malaysia, Taiwan, and mainland China, which allows examination of the influence of different political and social contexts. It is undertaken in collaboration with Chien-yu Julia Huang of National Tsing-hua University in Taiwan and Lizhu Fan of Fudan University in China.
Southeast Asia Education Survey, funded by the National Bureau of Asian Research, Seattle, Washington, Elizabeth Prodromou, Director. A five-member team project examining the culture and politics of general and religious education in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines.