Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Science and Politics of Obesity in India

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Graduate student Solomon Harris, under the direction of Dr. Catherine A. Lutz, will undertake research on the social contexts, causes, and consequences of a reported epidemic of obesity developing in India. The primary objective is to better understand how concerns about epidemics relate both to science and to broad social transformations, particularly when the disease in question is chronic and is framed as a matter of "lifestyle." The research will be carried out in Mumbai. The researcher will use ethnographic methods of participant observation, interviews, and critical discourse analysis to delineate the range of issues surrounding obesity and its health consequences. These debates range from concerns about middle-class overconsumption to theories of South Asian genetic predispositions to weight gain. In doing so, the research also will seek out broader social themes that may underlie these debates, such as: how those who are overfed gain visibility over those who are undernourished; how medical ideas about "lifestyle" shade those concerned with hygiene; and how anxieties about scarcity give way to those about excess. Ultimately, the project will create a social map of a national public health dilemma.The research is important because obesity is a spreading world public health problem. This project will contribute to understanding how sociocultural dimensions interact with medical ones. The research also supports the education of a social scientist.