Ester Shapiro ester.shapiro@umb.edu
Shirley Tang Shirley.tang@umb.edu
Tariana V. Little Tariana.little001@umb.edu
& Tri V. Quach Tri.quach001@umb.edu
UMASS Boston Transnational Cultural & Community Studies Program (visit us: https://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/interdisciplinary_programs/transnational_cultural_and_community_studies_ms
Yvette Modestin, Encuentro Diaspora Afro, Boston MA lapolitica@msn.com
Workshop 12/4/15 @ Conference Building Inclusive Communities: From Neighborhoods to Nations

Drawing on our courses, including Gender, Culture & Health Promotion (Shapiro) & Digital Storytelling in Asian American Studies (Tang) at UMB & Encuentro’s arts & racial/cultural justice programs
(Modestin) we will share our strategies for engaging students/participants & community partners in connecting to culturally grounded, holistic understandings of wellbeing and cultural resilience resources foundational to health with equity

Below are online resource in the intersecting fields of complementary & alternative medicine within biomedicine, traditional/indigenous wellness, holistic and integrative medicine as each: o Strives to reconcile specialty care, primary care, and cultural/holistic approaches to health & wellbeing o Shifts towards a vision of culturally grounded, person-family-and-community centered care o Recognizes the centrality of culture, spirituality, and social justice in shared journeys towards wellness
 View Professor Shirley Tang’s keynote presentation, “Media and Digital Literacy via Asian American
Studies Pedagogies of Wholeness” https://umbmedia.wordpress.com/2012-citedtech-conference/

View Yvette Modestin & Brandi Waters talk about Encuentro Diaspora Afro’s work: https://vimeo.com/65380110 ; & visit her blog: http://diasporaafro.blogspot.com/
 View Tariana V. Little’s work in health, communications, & social change: http://www.emvisionproductions.com/tariana/
 View “Self-Portrait” by Tri V. Quach: http://www.umassmedia.com/art_lifestyle/self-portrait-by-triquach/image_48abdc4e-ba51-11e2-8c6f-001a4bcf6878.html
Culture Holistic Health & Equity resources (based on Gender Culture & Health (Shapiro) course principles &
Shapiro published articles, bibliography below):
I.
Re-thinking high technology medicine & biomedicalization of everyday life through the lens of culturally/spiritually grounded & equitable approaches to holistic health a.
Robbie Davis Floyd makes the distinction between technocratic, humanistic & holistic/cultural spiritual approaches to health care , based on work in indigenous childbirth and the role of culturally meaningful spirituality and ritual in life course transitions, each plays a key role: http://davis-floyd.com/uncategorized/the-technocratic-humanistic-and-holistic-paradigms-of-childbirth/ b.
Wellness & Flourishing in contexts of equity as starting points, rather than fragmented & decontextualized symptoms of illness (as in Prilleltensky 2012, Wellness as Fairness: http://www.education.miami.edu/isaac/public_web/Articles/69.%20Wellness%20as%20Fairnes s.pdf
Keyes 2013, measuring/focusing on flourishing not just on illness/symptoms) http://tapartnership.org/enterprise/docs/RESOURCE%20BANK/RB-
PUBLIC%20HEALTH/General%20Resources/Promoting_and_Protecting_MH__Keyes_2007.pdf
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c.
Social Determinants of Health explores contexts, justice and health impacts both global and
U.S. resources: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick? http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/
; UN/global: Closing the Gap in a Generation (2008): http://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/finalreport/en/ d.
Human Development approach to economic development measures how well nations & U.S. states spend money to benefit people, based on Amartya Sen capabilities approach looks at
Income/Employment & Wages, Health/Life Expectancy, and Education as indicators: U.S.: http://www.measureofamerica.org/ UN/global: http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev e.
Health care reform in U.S. and globally uses principles of patient-centered, systems-minded, and knowledge-based care (Berwick, 2002); patient centeredness is necessary but not sufficient in addressing issues of equity and cultural diversity: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/21/3/80.full
f.
Literatures on social resilience & rebuilding after disasters focused on local cultural communities and equity (Ungar, 20111; http://resilienceresearch.org/ Lykes, 2013 https://www2.bc.edu/~lykes/
II.
Participatory health promotion research, community science, & transdisciplinary research offer ways to engage individuals within their communities or settings (as in UMB), as well as the community as a whole; a.
Participatory research helps us learn what impacted individuals need to support their own efforts toward wellness and healing: recommend Campus Community Partnerships for Health: https://depts.washington.edu/ccph/commbas.html
b.
Reaching out to communities to develop culturally meaningful solutions to health issues
(Prevention Institute resources including Spectrum of Prevention: http://www.preventioninstitute.org/ ). c.
Wandersman Getting to Outcomes: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2004/RAND_TR101.pdf
Connecting culture and health to participatory methods and empowerment: a.
Barrett et al (2003/4) defines holistic health practice consistent with culture & equity, highlights themes of HEAL: Holism, Empowerment, Access and Legitimacy: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1466673/pdf/0020253.pdf
b.
Many of us turn to holistic practices when we have complex medical conditions requiring culturally contextualized, systemic/life-course understandings: for Ester it was chronic fatigue in my 30’s and cancer in my 60’s that led me to Chinese medicine c.
Requires disease specific/specialized care when needed, while seeking resources for health both within & outside the health care system: high-technology/specialty care, primary care, & wellness/holistic care including treatment, problem prevention and health promotion/wellness d.
A holistic approach focuses on person-centered quality of life or lived experience a term often used in qualitative research and person-centered care.
III.
Holistic health as a way to address burdens of stress due to societal inequalities, discrimination, overall stress and the idea of allostatic load which is the body’s burden of selfregulation in response to stressors and a pathway by which inequalities compromise health and cultural resources protect health; McEwan & Seeman (2009) McArthur Network on SES &
Health for an overview: http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/research/allostatic/allostatic.php
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IV.
Addressing discrimination & promoting Health equity through cultures : awareness of discrimination & critical social determinants approach to cultural competence helps us look at contextual stressors & targeting of certain groups due to discrimination/ barriers to resources,
AND culturally based resilience strategies & strengths: National Center for Cultural
Competence : http://nccc.georgetown.edu/ ; Kirmayer (2012) Rethinking Cultural Competence: http://tps.sagepub.com/content/49/2/149.long
a.
Cultural Competence & Health Equity: Connecting holistic health, cultural competence & equity through culturally informed social justice/resource rights b.
Resistance & Resilience: Help individuals and communities balance confrontation/challenge of inequalities and self-protective distance/acceptance as recommended in meditation practices c.
Linking personal health and social change : Help diverse communities become aware of impacts of inequalities, in ways that promote personal and collective action toward change

Addressing effectiveness: How do we know culturally grounded/CAM works? Thompson et al
(2011) developed a measure for self-evaluation of change: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-
6882-11-136.pdf

Culture, Storytelling, Narrative Medicine & Terms of Engagement: Culture plays a role in personal and collective engagement/empowerment—how do we become activated to take charge of our health? To join with others? What motivates a sense of purpose? How to understand those whose experiences of being discriminated against or protected/privileged we do not share? Storytelling promotes compassion
& empathy for self & others: http://www.narrativemedicine.org/bibliography.html
Culture & Holistic Health

Excellent glossary of terms used in Integrative Medicine and in Cultural Competence: http://www.hogg.utexas.edu/uploads/documents/Glossary.pdf

Ted Kaptchuck on the power of placebo effect as it connects to healing rituals across cultures: article I recommend on placebo effect (provider support/beliefs in provider as healer) & how to think about it in terms of ritual theory: http://g.virbcdn.com/_f/files/5b/FileItem-112338-KaptchukritualPhilTranB.pdf
Cultural Resources for Diverse College Students
Jenkins, T. (2013). My Culture, My Color, My Self: Heritage, Resilience and Community in the Lives of Young
Adults . Philadelphia: Temple University Press, book chapters and articles available on her site: http://tobyjenkins.weebly.com/
Professor Ester Shapiro, References:
Shapiro, Ester (2014). Translating Latin American/US Latina Frameworks and Methods in Gender and
Health Equity: Linking Women’s Health Education and Participatory Social Change. International Quarterly of
Community Health Education .
Shapiro, E., and Atallah-Gutierrez, C. (2012). Latina Re-Visionings of Participatory Health Promotion
Practice: Cultural and Ecosystemic Perspectives Linking Personal and Social Change. Women and Therapy ,
Special Issue, Latinas in Therapy . 35(1-2), 120-133.
Shapiro, E. (2013). Chronic illness and family resilience. In Becvar, D. (Ed.), Handbook of Family
Resilience . NY: Springer.
Shapiro, E., and Modestin, Y. (2013). Women of Color and the Arts: Creativities in Everyday Life As
Wellsprings of Resistance and Resilience. In Comas-Diaz, L., and Greene, B. (Eds.). Psychological Health of
Women of Color: Intersections, Challenges, and Opportunities . NY: Prager.
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