What happens when someone gets diagnosed with type 2 diabetes? What happens after to that person’s connections with their culture, identity, and family?
This week we’re exploring the connections between type 2 diabetes and gender for women living in New Delhi with Dr. Jo Weaver. Dr. Weaver is an assistant professor in the department of International Studies at the University of Oregon. She is a biocultural medical anthropologist, who’s research addresses chronic diseases, mental health, and food insecurity in India and Brazil. She also co-hosts the podcast Speaking of Race (another fantastic show sponsored by the AAAs).
In our interview, Dr. Weaver highlights some of her key findings from her research with women managing type 2 diabetes in India. She explores the strong connections between cultural identity, gender roles, mental wellbeing and dietary shifts that these women experience after their diagnoses, and the connections between the lived experiences of these women and some of the biochemical markers for stress that she found during her studies. Dr. Weaver very poignantly sums up the complexity of diabetes as a social disease in this interview, and I’m excited for you to learn as much from her as I did.
Listen in the player above, or download on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, or iHeartRadio
Resources:
Dr. Weaver’s Book, Sugar and Tension: Diabetes and Gender in Modern India