University of North Texas 
2021-2023 Denton County Public Health and Tobacco Free North Texas: Cannabinoids, Consumer Use, Policy, and Retail Manufacture
2020 Denton County Public Health, Vaping and Risk
2019 UNT Dean of Students Office, Students and the Control of Sleep
2018 Children’s Hospital of Dallas, Childhood Asthma Unit
2016 Denton Hunger Coalition, Evaluation of the Mobile Food Pantry
2011-2015 Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Public Policy Research
Institute (PPRI), Dallas, TX
2008-2013 Sleep Medical Associates of Texas: Insomnia, Apnea, and the Culture of Sleep
Lisa Henry
Food insecurity among college students, food insecurity in the general population, evaluation of healthcare delivery in hospitals and clinics, patient response and compliance to treatment plan, cross-cultural health beliefs and treatments, healthcare decision making and alternative medicine, curriculum evaluation in medical schools, US, Pacific.
Andrew Nelson
Sub/Urbanism, Migration and Refugees, Immigration & Urban Policy, Housing & Architecture, Intermediaries, Nepal/South Asian Cities, South Asian Diaspora in Americas, Urban Inequality in US
Mariela Nuñez-Janes
Anthropology of education, youth, migration and migrant education, immigration, social movements and grassroots organizing, action research, Latinxs, feminist and border pedagogies, U.S. Southwest, and Latin America
Alicia Re Cruz
Migrants and refugees, displacement, border studies, Hispanic culture and society, Latin America, Mesoamerican culture, Maya culture and society, rural-urban migration, social change, tourism, transnationalism, peasant societies
Christina Wasson
Design anthropology, anthropology of technology, participatory design of language and culture archives, Indigenous data sovereignty, user-centered design, human-computer interaction, organizational anthropology, environmental governance, integration of theory and practice. For more information, see www.christinawasson.com/research.
Examples of Applied Projects of Faculty Members
Doug Henry
Project: Social and Environmental Interventions Study
Client: University of Texas SW Medical Center
Date: 2000-2002
Description: This project, a multi-stage, mixed quantitative/ qualitative study, was
funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to look at "structural"
influences from the social and physical environment on the behavior of young gay and
bisexual men. Between 2000-2002, the project collaborated with some 200 young men
and over 80 local HIV service providers, outreach workers, community leaders, and
health professionals. The approach followed that of a "community empowerment" intervention,
in which community-wide change in behaviors is targeted by organizing communities
to define their health problems, identify the determinants of those problems, and
engage in effective, collective action to change these determinants. The purpose was
been to engage young men in articulating the social and environmental factors in their
lives relevant to their current risk for HIV/ STD infection, and to enlist their participation
in conceptualizing, prioritizing, and evaluating a range of potential prevention interventions
that could, if realized, fundamentally address these influences, and positively impact
their lives.
Project: Liberian, Nigerian, and Sudanese Refugee/ Immigrant Health Concerns
Client: Baylor University Hospital, Dallas
Date: 1998, 2001
Description: Refugees and immigrants living in the United States often have unique
health concerns, of which U.S. health practitioners may be ill equipped or simply
too busy to understand. This research was based on the belief that a better understanding
of the social, cultural, political, and economic situation of these groups could help
U.S. health care practitioners better meet refugee and immigrant health care needs.
Project: Health, Income, and Empowerment Among Sierra Leonean Refugees
Client: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Field Office, Guéckédou, Guinea,
West Africa
Date: 1997
Description: Economic opportunities for camp-dwelling refugees are limited, a fact
which has problematic implications for health and health behavior within the camps,
in particular the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Currently the prevalence
of STDs among refugees remains largely undocumented, as most cases are not reported
to the formal sector. They are, however, widely acknowledged among refugees themselves
to be common. This project was the result of preliminary research concerning health
behaviors of Sierra Leonean (mostly Mende) refugees in Kolomba Camp, Rep. of Guinea.
It attempted to shed light on the complex relationships that exist in camps between
economic generating ability, empowerment, gender, culture, education, and "at risk"
behavior. It was done in conjunction with the researchers' affiliation with the NGO's
Catholic Mission for Refugees and Concern Universal, and as part of doctoral dissertation
research in medical anthropology.
Lisa Henry
Project: Food Insecurity among College Students
Client: University of North Texas Dean of Students
Date: 2014- present
Description: The goals of this project are to investigate the short term and sustained
benefits of the UNT food pantry for food insecure students, investigate the barriers
to accessing food assistance programs (on and off campus), investigate the need for
alternative food assistance programs on campus, and investigate the different factors
related to short-term food insecurity and long-term food insecurity among students.
Research indicates that food insecurity negatively impacts academic performance, mental
and social health, dietary choices and overall health status among adolescents and
young adults. Understanding the needs of and solutions for food insecure college students
is crucial to student success.
Project: Evaluation of the Denton Mobile Food Pantry
Client: The Denton Hunger Coalition
Date: 2016
Description: The goal of this project was to evaluate the Denton Mobile Food Pantry.
We collected data on the families who came to the Denton Mobile Food Pantry to understand
their difficulties and challenges, their major health issues that impacted food security,
the impact/relevance of the pantry on the clients' lives, and any feedback to improve
services.
Project: Understanding Hunger in North Texas: Identifying Factors that Influence Food Security
Client: The Hunger Center at the North Texas Food Bank
Date: 2012-2014
Description: The goal of this research was to understand how a person's environment
(social and physical) and social capital affect their level of food security. This
research provides a complex understanding of both barriers faced and strategies utilized
by individuals experiencing food insecurity. The goal is to assist the Hunger Center
in providing appropriate programs and services to specific communities.
Andrew Nelson
Project: Bhutanese Refugees in Dallas/Ft. Worth
Client: Bhutanese Society of America, DFW; Beginners Community Support Group of DFW
Date: 2014- present
Description: With these two refugee CBOs in the DFW area, I have used anthropological
research and skills to support and advocate for Nepali-Bhutanese refugees as a grant
writer, ESL/Citizenship exam instructor, and advisor. .
Mariela Nuñez-Janes
Project: Human Trafficking in North Texas
Client: Opening Doors International Services
Date: 2015-2016
Description:This project focused on understanding local awareness of the signs of
human trafficking along the I-35 corridor in Denton County. Businesses were surveyed
and research results were used to aid ODIS in developing their human trafficking prevention
campaign.
Project: IamWe, Digital Storytelling
Client: Texas High School PALs program
Date: 2007-2014
Description: See https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783110539356/9783110539356-009/9783110539356-009.pdf
Project: Undocumented Students, immigrant rights, and youth-led activism
Client: North Texas Dream Team
Date: 2006-present
Description: I have used action research and other anthropological skills to support
students by creating a guide of resources to facilitate the high-school to college
transition, connecting students to resources and relevant information, advocating
as expert through briefs, reports, and presentations for North Texas educators, and
organizing resources for the promotion of education in the immigrant community.
Project: Bilingual Education and Identity
Client: New Mexican Urban Elementary School
Date: 2000
Description: This project compared two strands of bilingual instruction (dual-language
and maintenance) utilized in a New Mexican elementary school. The purpose was to understand
how each strand's assumptions about the roles played by English and Spanish in the
classroom informed Latino students' attitudes towards language and ethnicity. I conducted
participant observation with fourth and fifth-grade students who identified as Mexicano
and Chicano to further illuminate the historical tensions between long time Hispano
residents and recently arrived Mexican immigrants.
Alicia Re Cruz
Project: Immigration Resource Council for Conflict Resolution
Client: North Texas community
Date: 2001-2002
Description: This project aims at resolving conflicts due to cultural misunderstanding
among the multi-cultural community of North Texas. It provides assistance for immigrants,
civic agencies, schools, hospitals or other individuals and organizations that request
the council's resources for help in problem solving. The project helps with mediators,
translators, legal liaisons, and cultural experts provided through the network of
professionals, community leaders and ethnic associations which comprise the program.
In addition, this project is an exercise in keeping university and community in constant
communication; applied anthropology students get involved at different steps of the
research or resolution of the case-conflict that the council deals with. This program
is operated on a volunteer basis.
Project: Dialogue Among Borders
Client: UNT (University of North Texas) and UQROO (The University of Quintana Roo)
Date: 1999-2001
Description: This project aimed at analyzing the "border culture" by establishing
a dialogue between different Mexican border regions: North, border with USA, and South,
border with Belize. The study had three focuses: public health, environment, and community
development. Two groups of students from both universities were selected. Through
videoconference, three scholars from both universities, specialized in the study's
focuses, presented their research to both student groups. An integral part of the
videoconference was a twenty to thirty minute time for questions and answers among
Texans and Mexican students, based on the data presented and the stereotypes that
each group had on their or the others' border region. The project finished with a
round table of guest speakers which included scholars, community leaders and representatives,
and students in order to address the needs of both Mexican borders, and the commonalities
and differences among them. This project resulted in a monograph that contains scholars'
lectures, major points discussed at the round table, and Mexican and Texan students
papers which were presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in 2000
and 2001.
Project: Introduction of New Planting Techniques among Yucatec Mayas
Client: Chan Kom, a Maya Yucatec community
Date: 1989-90
Description: The Yucatec Mayas perform slash-and-burn techniques to plant corn in
their milpas; however because of the exhaustion soil in the forest, their yields are
more and more scarce. The Mexican Government tried to bring new planting techniques
to the Maya communities, in order to produce more corn; however their training and
efforts to teach and show the Maya peasants the new agricultural methods were not
successful. This project showed that the agricultural introductions by the Government
were clashing with the ancestral ways of "growing and nurturing" corn, which jeopardizes
the ritual-sacred Maya cycle associated to corn. The study proposed alternatives of
establishing "dialogues" between the new techniques and the traditional way of "making
milpa". This project-study was part of my PhD research among the Mayas, which resulted
in the book, The Two Milpas of Chan Kom, published by SUNY Press.