2011-2012 Policy & Social Engagement Fellowship Recipients
Ralph Cintrón, Professor of English and Latino and Latin American Studies. His research and teaching interests are in rhetorical studies; ethnography, particularly urban ethnography; urban theory; theories of transnationalism; political theory, particularly the anthropology of democracy; and social theory. Research wise, he has been working ethnographically in specific Puerto Rican and Mexican neighborhoods in Chicago. Some of this work has occurred inside an alderman’s office where the focus is on housing issues. Other work in these communities has been focused on labor, immigration, the transnational political and economic forces that underpin these neighborhoods, and the evolution of political ideology. He is a former Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and his book, Angels’ Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday, won honorable mention for the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing from the American Anthropological Association.
Lisa Lee, Director of the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, and the co-founder and former Director of the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council. Dr. Lee's book, Dialectics of the Body: Corporeality in the Philosophy of Theodore W. Adorno, argues that Adorno's analysis of reified society emanates and returns to the body. She has published articles in journals such as, Peace and Change and In These Times Magazine, as well as anthologies, most recently: Redefining Museum Ethics and Sustainable Museums.
Angela Odoms-Young, Assistant Professor in Kinesiology and Nutrition in the College of Applied Health Sciences. Prior to her current position, she served on the faculty at Northern Illinois University in Public Health and Health Education. Dr. Odoms-Young’s research is focused on understanding social, cultural, and environmental determinants of dietary behaviors and diet-related diseases in low-income and minority populations. Her current projects include studies to evaluate the impact of the new WIC food package on dietary intake and weight status in 2-3 year old low-income children, examine relationships between neighborhood food availability, eating behaviors, and weight status in Latino families, and understand the influence of marketing on food consumption in African American families. Dr. Odoms-Young completed a Family Research Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship examining family processes in diverse populations at the Pennsylvania State University/University of Illinois at Urbana and a Community Health Scholars Fellowship in community-based participatory research at the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health. Dr. Odoms-Young earned a B.S. degree in foods and nutrition from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University in human nutrition and community nutrition, respectively.
