Special Issue: Experiencing Environments
From the Editors
We are very excited to share our second themed issue: “Experiencing Environments.” When drafting the CFP, the editorial board envisioned an issue centering on human experience in natural, built, or digital environments. Yet we’ve been stunned by the capacious range of submissions we’ve received exploring other kinds of ‘environments’—social, political, and even emotional, just to name a few. The issue covers a far richer and more wide-ranging array of perspectives than we could have imagined. We’ll be rolling out the issue in stages, so please check back in over the summer. Enjoy!
—The Waves team
Feral Cat Colonies
Cats of Circumstance, by Isabel DeVos
Pursuing Wholeness in a Time of Division
Trump, Myth, and the Politics of Wholeness, by Karina Claros
Playing through Pain
[…], by Micah Rodriguez
Diabetes Management and Mental Health
Characterizing Diabetes Distress: Assessing Demographic, Clinical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Correlates, by Emma Carpenter
Racial Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease
Investigation of Racial Disparities in Rates of Alzheimer’s Disease Among African Americans as Compared to White Americans, by Rachel Younglove
Language Barriers in the ER
A Review of Interventions to Address Language Barriers in the Emergency Department, by Maria Maura, Joel Hernandez, and Keer Zhang
Reducing Stigma and Global Burden of HIV
Targeted prevention and control strategies for MSM and IDU populations can reduce stigma and global burden of HIV, by Ashlyn N. Ludovici and Callaway M. Wells
Isabel DeVos
“While ‘feral’ is considered to be an ugly word, these cats are first labelled this way by people and then disregarded as a result. I wanted to create a commentary that highlights the way society simultaneously perceives these creatures, and what causes that shift in perception. This message also serves as a greater parallel to human society as a whole. The central metaphor I establish about these cats and their differences (or similarities) displays themes of privilege, circumstance, and how arbitrary our ‘stations' in life are– while still entirely divisive.”
Karina Claros
“This piece emerged from a moment of emotional and intellectual urgency. As someone deeply invested in advocacy and systemic change, I’ve been grappling with the psychological toll of political division and cruelty . . . I turned to Joseph Campbell not just for mythic insight, but for a framework that could help reorient resistance toward wholeness, rather than reaction. His emphasis on integration over opposition felt like a lifeline in a time of fragmentation.”
Easton Brundage
“I first wrote this paper for my Women’s Studies Capstone course during the semester that I was both diagnosed with PCOS and started hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Both processes were tumultuous with expensive doctor’s visits, many tests, and constant bloodwork all while I faced consistent barriers from medical providers who created unsupportive and at times transphobic environments. . . . Birthed from my experience navigating the healthcare system, this research paper is a defense of trans masculine people’s bodily autonomy.”
Emma Carpenter
“While I originally anticipated writing a review paper regarding the pathophysiology of type 1 diabetes, after diving into existing literature I kept encountering an unfamiliar term–“diabetes distress.” Upon reading more, I found myself intrigued by this term–defined as the emotional burden that accompanies diabetes and its demanding self-care behaviors. Although I had investigated the mechanism of type 1 diabetes in my wet-lab research, I had not previously explored the psychological impact of diabetes–nor had I truly considered how living with diabetes might affect someone’s mental health.”
Rachel Younglove
“Investigating this topic also allowed me to incorporate anthropological perspectives on both race and medicine to better understand how the two interact within culture and society. My goal in illuminating these racial disparities in cognitive health is to enact change that can address the stubborn presence of racial bias and the persistent structural barriers that continue to contribute to African Americans’ increased risk of developing poor cognitive health. My hope is that this research emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary approaches to solving real-world health issues, specifically those involving race as a variable in determining health outcomes.”
Maria Maura, Joel Hernandez, and Keer Zhang
“We completed this project as part of a literature review initiative by the Equal Access Clinic Network (EACN) Research Department. We (Maria and Joel) were both born in Cuba and arrived in the United States when we were around 15 years of age. Since then, we have experienced language barriers ourselves and in our families. As future physicians, we have been involved in clinical activities where we have seen the effects of language barriers in patients as well. We hope that this paper will reach Emergency Department physicians and administrators, as well as other students interested in the topic.”
Ashlyn N. Ludovici and Callaway M. Wells
“Lead author Ashlyn Ludovici drove this project after an initial exposure to HIV as a global problem started in 2019, while studying abroad in Athens, Greece. While there, she noticed a lot of used needles and was questioning where they all came from. She learned that there was an Athens-based HIV outbreak among Intravenous Drug Users, and that the needles on the street helped stop the spread of HIV for this population. While writing our paper, we wanted to focus on other subpopulations that have faced unfair and very harmful stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS. This led us to research the history of HIV and the discovery of the significant burden that was placed upon the men who have sex with men (MSM) population.”