Lance D Laird
Biographic Data
| ID | 89529 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lance D Laird |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lance D |
| FAMILY NAME | Laird |
| SIGNATURE | LAIRD L D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4831-3850 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
British Muslims, Ethnicity and Health Inequalities, edited by Sufyan Abid Dogra
“Using theories” and “doing theory”
The use of “theory” is a common concern in public health and anthropology. However, the term can have quite distinct meanings. In this piece, we seek to name and characterize some tendencies in anthropological theorizing that contribute to potential misunderstandings when communicating with non-anthropologist colleagues in public health. In particular, we highlight differences between the use of recognizable, named “theories” that often explicitl…
Beyond Organizational Health Promotion
Multiple Roles of American Muslim Health Professionals as a Faith-based Organization
Based on oral history interviews with past and present leaders ( n = 12) of the American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP), this article examines the meanings of faith and identity in the multiple roles this faith-based organization plays. AMHP connects and develops Muslim health leaders, connects Muslim communities to public health policy and health promotion, and partners with interfaith and government agencies. The evolution of AMHP over the …
Muslim Chaplains in the Clinical Borderlands
The Influence of Religious Identity, Culture, and Values on the Practice of American Muslim Physicians
Many believe religion has no place in modern medical and professional fields. Nevertheless, recent studies show that religion remains integral to many people’s lives and professional practices, such as physicians. This study addresses the significance that American Muslim physicians (AMPs) attribute to their religious values in shaping their identity; and examines how the values held by self-identified Muslim physicians affect their medical pract…
Orphans in post-conflict Liberia
Orphans in post-conflict settings have unique needs that have not been well-characterized. In post-conflict Liberia, maternal orphans are more likely to be without care than paternal orphans. This study examined the experiences of maternal orphans in Liberia, as they attempted to care for themselves and seek care from others, and the barriers they faced. In-depth interviews were conducted with 75 post-conflict Liberian orphans. We performed a sec…
Applied Training in a Medical Anthropology Master's Program
Learning practical skills is key to becoming an applied anthropologist. For my MS degree, I chose a program at Boston University School of Medicine that incorporates skills development into the curriculum through its Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP). The SLIP facilitates students' familiarity with their field site throughout the first year, before they start summer fieldwork. My SLIP and thesis fieldwork took place in a VA hospital's pa…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
Boundary Crossing
Interest in religion and spirituality continues to grow among public health practitioners, researchers, and scholars. While there have been several recent landmark publications and efforts to understand the intersections of religion, spirituality, and public health, work remains to be done. In this commentary, we outline three challenges that impede more substantive engagement with religion and spirituality from the public health perspective; nam…
Mothers’ gardens in arid soil
This article reports on a qualitative, interview-based study about religious and spiritual coping among economically and racially marginalized U.S. mothers with depression. The study aimed to understand how the women interpreted and made existential meaning out of their experiences. The authors used a combination of grounded theory and narrative analysis to identify and interpret themes. Two key findings emerged: (a) narratives of distress and st…
Narratives of Agency and Capability from Two Adolescent Girls in Post-conflict Liberia
Finding Spirits in Spirituality
Acculturation and a Potential Relationship with Oral Health Outcomes Among Somali Refugees in Massachusetts
Stress and Hope at the Margins
For many people across the world, experiences of depression include features that extend beyond the biopsychiatric model, which predominates in research on the relationship between religious and spiritual coping and depressive symptoms. How does attending to these diverse experiences of depression challenge our understanding of the dynamic between religiosity and depression? This paper presents thirteen qualitative interviews among economically m…
Looking Islam in the Teeth
The Arabicmiswak(Somali,adayge) is a tooth-cleaning stick from the Salvadora persica plant. In this article, we trace the social life of a "thing," examining meanings inscribed in the stick brush, drawing on interviews with 82 Somali refugees in Massachusetts and an analysis of local and transnational science and marketing. The miswak toothbrush symbolizes relationships to nature, homeland culture, global Islam, globalizing dental medicine, and t…
Cultural Citizenship and Belonging
This paper explores how a predominantly immigrant interview sample of 62 Muslim physicians articulate their cultural citizenship and sense of “belonging” in the USA. Many Muslim physicians who have come as international medical graduates (IMGs) share the challenges, obstacles, and assets of their IMG peers. Yet within the context of rising Islamophobia after the September 11 (9/11) attacks in the USA, immigrant Muslim physicians encounter “racial…
How Muslim and Non-Muslim Chaplains Serve Muslim Patients? Does the Interfaith Chaplaincy Model have Room for Muslims’ Experiences
Negotiating Ambivalence
This article analyzes three ways in which groups of socially and politically marginalized first-generation Muslim immigrants used the power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to advance their interests in the United States. Specifically we examine the founding of nine Muslim community-based health organizations (MCBHOs) in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles. We argue that MCBHOs (1) offer a vehicle for the expression and enactment of…
Constructing American Muslim Identity
Negotiating Ambivalence
This article analyzes three ways in which groups of socially and politically marginalized first-generation Muslim immigrants used the power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to advance their interests in the United States. Specifically we examine the founding of nine Muslim community-based health organizations (MCBHOs) in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles. We argue that MCBHOs (1) offer a vehicle for the expression and enactment of…
Boundary Crossing
Interest in religion and spirituality continues to grow among public health practitioners, researchers, and scholars. While there have been several recent landmark publications and efforts to understand the intersections of religion, spirituality, and public health, work remains to be done. In this commentary, we outline three challenges that impede more substantive engagement with religion and spirituality from the public health perspective; nam…
Cultural Citizenship and Belonging
This paper explores how a predominantly immigrant interview sample of 62 Muslim physicians articulate their cultural citizenship and sense of “belonging” in the USA. Many Muslim physicians who have come as international medical graduates (IMGs) share the challenges, obstacles, and assets of their IMG peers. Yet within the context of rising Islamophobia after the September 11 (9/11) attacks in the USA, immigrant Muslim physicians encounter “racial…
Narratives of Agency and Capability from Two Adolescent Girls in Post-conflict Liberia
Looking Islam in the Teeth
The Arabicmiswak(Somali,adayge) is a tooth-cleaning stick from the Salvadora persica plant. In this article, we trace the social life of a "thing," examining meanings inscribed in the stick brush, drawing on interviews with 82 Somali refugees in Massachusetts and an analysis of local and transnational science and marketing. The miswak toothbrush symbolizes relationships to nature, homeland culture, global Islam, globalizing dental medicine, and t…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
Constructing American Muslim Identity
Negotiating Ambivalence
This article analyzes three ways in which groups of socially and politically marginalized first-generation Muslim immigrants used the power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to advance their interests in the United States. Specifically we examine the founding of nine Muslim community-based health organizations (MCBHOs) in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles. We argue that MCBHOs (1) offer a vehicle for the expression and enactment of…
How Muslim and Non-Muslim Chaplains Serve Muslim Patients? Does the Interfaith Chaplaincy Model have Room for Muslims’ Experiences
Cultural Citizenship and Belonging
This paper explores how a predominantly immigrant interview sample of 62 Muslim physicians articulate their cultural citizenship and sense of “belonging” in the USA. Many Muslim physicians who have come as international medical graduates (IMGs) share the challenges, obstacles, and assets of their IMG peers. Yet within the context of rising Islamophobia after the September 11 (9/11) attacks in the USA, immigrant Muslim physicians encounter “racial…
Looking Islam in the Teeth
The Arabicmiswak(Somali,adayge) is a tooth-cleaning stick from the Salvadora persica plant. In this article, we trace the social life of a "thing," examining meanings inscribed in the stick brush, drawing on interviews with 82 Somali refugees in Massachusetts and an analysis of local and transnational science and marketing. The miswak toothbrush symbolizes relationships to nature, homeland culture, global Islam, globalizing dental medicine, and t…
Finding Spirits in Spirituality
Acculturation and a Potential Relationship with Oral Health Outcomes Among Somali Refugees in Massachusetts
Stress and Hope at the Margins
For many people across the world, experiences of depression include features that extend beyond the biopsychiatric model, which predominates in research on the relationship between religious and spiritual coping and depressive symptoms. How does attending to these diverse experiences of depression challenge our understanding of the dynamic between religiosity and depression? This paper presents thirteen qualitative interviews among economically m…
Mothers’ gardens in arid soil
This article reports on a qualitative, interview-based study about religious and spiritual coping among economically and racially marginalized U.S. mothers with depression. The study aimed to understand how the women interpreted and made existential meaning out of their experiences. The authors used a combination of grounded theory and narrative analysis to identify and interpret themes. Two key findings emerged: (a) narratives of distress and st…
Narratives of Agency and Capability from Two Adolescent Girls in Post-conflict Liberia
Boundary Crossing
Interest in religion and spirituality continues to grow among public health practitioners, researchers, and scholars. While there have been several recent landmark publications and efforts to understand the intersections of religion, spirituality, and public health, work remains to be done. In this commentary, we outline three challenges that impede more substantive engagement with religion and spirituality from the public health perspective; nam…
Applied Training in a Medical Anthropology Master's Program
Learning practical skills is key to becoming an applied anthropologist. For my MS degree, I chose a program at Boston University School of Medicine that incorporates skills development into the curriculum through its Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP). The SLIP facilitates students' familiarity with their field site throughout the first year, before they start summer fieldwork. My SLIP and thesis fieldwork took place in a VA hospital's pa…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
The Influence of Religious Identity, Culture, and Values on the Practice of American Muslim Physicians
Many believe religion has no place in modern medical and professional fields. Nevertheless, recent studies show that religion remains integral to many people’s lives and professional practices, such as physicians. This study addresses the significance that American Muslim physicians (AMPs) attribute to their religious values in shaping their identity; and examines how the values held by self-identified Muslim physicians affect their medical pract…
Orphans in post-conflict Liberia
Orphans in post-conflict settings have unique needs that have not been well-characterized. In post-conflict Liberia, maternal orphans are more likely to be without care than paternal orphans. This study examined the experiences of maternal orphans in Liberia, as they attempted to care for themselves and seek care from others, and the barriers they faced. In-depth interviews were conducted with 75 post-conflict Liberian orphans. We performed a sec…
Muslim Chaplains in the Clinical Borderlands
Multiple Roles of American Muslim Health Professionals as a Faith-based Organization
Based on oral history interviews with past and present leaders ( n = 12) of the American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP), this article examines the meanings of faith and identity in the multiple roles this faith-based organization plays. AMHP connects and develops Muslim health leaders, connects Muslim communities to public health policy and health promotion, and partners with interfaith and government agencies. The evolution of AMHP over the …
British Muslims, Ethnicity and Health Inequalities, edited by Sufyan Abid Dogra
“Using theories” and “doing theory”
The use of “theory” is a common concern in public health and anthropology. However, the term can have quite distinct meanings. In this piece, we seek to name and characterize some tendencies in anthropological theorizing that contribute to potential misunderstandings when communicating with non-anthropologist colleagues in public health. In particular, we highlight differences between the use of recognizable, named “theories” that often explicitl…
Beyond Organizational Health Promotion
Sociology (14 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (11 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Public health (7 works) · Social science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)