I am currently researching under Dr.
Jhumka Gupta in the Global Community Health department of the College of Health
and Human Services. Dr. Gupta is a social epidemiologist, and I have the
privilege of assisting on several of her projects. I am working on a pilot
study looking at Endometriosis and period stigma among adolescents in the
United States. I am also assisting in the translation of data from a study on
intimate partner violence (IPV) in Mexico, which involves translating Spanish
transcripts and field notes into English. The other project is the start of
research on the connection between IPV and chronic illness.
My specific tasks vary from week to week,
but I am always busy with some aspect of our research projects. An ongoing task
I have is to conduct a review of the literature surrounding the link between
chronic illness and IPV, particularly looking for articles focused on chronic
illness as a precipitating factor of IPV. The data from the Mexico study are
lengthy, so translation of those has also been an ongoing process. We have
focus groups for the endometriosis study, and transcribing these is a big task
for me. Once the focus group session has been transcribed we analyze the
qualitative data and look for any recurring themes. I am also responsible for
different institutional review board (IRB) applications when they arise, which
has proven to be a lengthy and informative process.
This week I discovered that conducting a
thorough and comprehensive literature review can be an incredibly complex process!
I am grateful for this research assistantship because it provides an
opportunity to dig deeper into my areas of interest and gain a bigger picture
of the overall research process. A career goal I have is to work in programming
planning and evaluation for a global health outreach organization, and the
knowledge I have gained through this experience will make me a more marketable
candidate for this type of position. Thanks for the mentoring, Dr. Gupta!
