Research Luncheon Series: Professor Linda Sprague Martinez Discusses Project Aqui Lá

“We let the data speak to us,” BUSSW Professor Linda Sprague Martinez told faculty and students in attendance at the January 26 Research Luncheon Series presentation in Conant Lounge. Professor Sprague Martinez explained the important role of data in her work with Project Aqui Lá, a transnationalism and health study that focuses exploring culture in two transnational communities in Boston: Brazilians and Dominicans. Combined Dominicans and Brazilians are two of the largest immigrant groups in New England. Both are highly transnational and racially diverse; culturally they have many similarities as well as differences. Aqui Lá, which literally translates to “here and there” in Portuguese captures the captures the spirit of transnationalism, as individuals finds themselves here, there, and somewhere in between two worlds.

Project Aqui Lá is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities through the OppNet- Basic Behavioral & Social Science Research Opportunity Network. Researchers and community partners that span Boston University, UMass Boston, the Brazilian Worker Center and the Dominican Development Center are collaboratively working to develop a systematic multilevel method for measuring culture and its impact on health. Through a data informed planning process, the team has engaged in extensive qualitative data collection methodologies, uncovering many stories such as the role of cellphones as cultural lifelines and the social life of food. Professor Sprague Martinez reported that data collected through cultural conversations and other methods of reflection was compiled and analyzed in the language(s) it was originally collected in. She said this helps to preserve both the message and feeling of what was said. For more information about Project Aqui Lá, click here.

The BUSSW Research Luncheon Series are brief lunch-time talks open to the BUSSW community which feature faculty and student presenters. Recent presenters include BUSSW professors Thomas Byrne, Yoonsook Ha, and Daniel Miller, as well as PhD candidates Abigail Ross and Melissa Hirschi.

Save the date! Don’t miss the remaining Spring Semester Research Luncheon Seminar Series:

Tuesday, February 23, 12-1: 30 PM, Dr. Robert B. Hudson, BUSSW Professor
Tuesday, March 22, 12:00-1:30 PM, Jin A. Chang, BUSSW Doctoral Student
Tuesday, April 12, 12:00-1:30 PM, Astraea Augsberger, BUSSW Professor
Wednesday, April 20, 12:00-1:30 PM, Dr. John Pinkerton, Professor, Queen’s University, Belfast (invited)

Be sure to join the discussion, RSVP to Lisa Murphy.