Title: Assistant Professor of English
University: University of Maine
Email: kathryn.swacha@maine.edu
Description of your work
I am interested in how people communicate about health every day and how RHM scholars can most effectively collaborate with local communities on health-related projects. This interest led to my community-based work with older adults at a senior center, which examines the ways in these adults negotiate various forms of information to make decisions about their health.
Most recently, I have begun a new project, in collaboration with several community partners, that explores the work of professionals who straddle the lines between ‘medical’ and ‘nonmedical,’ specifically the work of birth doulas. What particularly interests me about professionals like doulas is how their attention to the whole person—as affective, emplaced, and embodied—can impact their clients’ health outcomes both within and beyond clinical contexts. I am also working on a project that explores the tradition of community-based methodologies in RHM and other related fields with an eye toward where we can facilitate greater collaboration and impact.