The Duke-UNC Social and Biological Determinants of Health Working Group wrapped up the fall semester with their second meeting on December 7th.We are hoping to re-convene in early 2016 to continue the group’s goal of narrowing down definitional clarity and synthesis across fields.
Social and Biological Determinants of Health Working Group
Mike Shanahan (Sociology, UNC/CPC )
Jenny Tung (Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke/DUPRI)
Participation:
Duke University
- Dan Belsky (Medicine, Duke/DUPRI)
- Noah Snyder-Mackler (Evolutionary Anthropology, Post-Doc, Duke/DUPRI)
- Susan Alberts (Biology Duke/DUPRI)
- Claire Yang (Sociology, UNC/CPC)
- Kathie Harris (Sociology, UNC/CPC)
- Lauren Gaydosh (Sociology Post-Doc, UNC/CPC)
- Allison Aiello ( Epidemiology, UNC/CPC)
- Lisa McGraw, (Biology, NC State)
- Heather Patisaul, (Biology, NC State)
November 3, 2015, Meeting Summary. The current working group includes membership divided evenly between the social sciences and natural sciences, with representation from Duke, UNC, and NC State and senior faculty, junior faculty, and post-docs. The approaches members use is broad, but we overlap strongly on two shared research interests: social behavior and its health/fitness outcomes. Based on e-mail responses from the working group members and discussion during the meeting, the strongest contribution we think we can make comes first from providing definitional clarity and synthesis across fields, with the possibility, down the road, of collaboratively conducting synthetic analyses. However, the group converged on a more definitional/conceptual synthesis as a primary goal. Meeting Venue: UNC/CPC
To move the dialogue forward, the group decided to roughly separate into the “social science” and “natural science” contingents, and identify “blind spots” in how our fields view the social/biological determinants of health. The goal was to share these blind spots with the other contingent several weeks before the next meeting, so that the other group could evaluate whether an alternative disciplinary perspective could help resolve the issue, drawing on current literature/research (i.e., “I have the perfect paper for you!”). Noah Snyder-Mackler set up a Slack account to promote and track this dialogue
December 7, 2015, Meeting Summary. Jenny Tung provided a summary of key questions that emerged via on-line discussion. The group divided themselves into those in the social sciences fields (Shanahan, Harris, Yang, Gaydosh, Belsky), and those in the natural sciences fields (Tung, Alberts, Snyder-Mackler, Mc Graw, Patisaul) to discuss what each group would like to learn from the other. A discussion based on literature, frameworks and models followed. Key barriers included disconnect in the definition of similar terms (e.g. selection, mediation) or lack of familiarity with constructs belonging to other disciplines (e.g. Niche construction, social isolation). The group determined that discussion will continue on-line via slack, but that a synthetic/definitional paper based on these discussions might be valuable and unprecedented product. Nonetheless all agreed on the need to define and narrow audience and forum for this product. Next meeting to be scheduled in January 2016. The need to reassess both membership and frequency of meetings was also raised. Meeting Venue: Duke University