Storytelling as a Public Health Tool
Drawn to public health storytelling, I was also hooked on one of the most compelling pieces of narrative history, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. Author Steven Johnson charted this investigative tale that led to the source of the horrific cholera outbreak in nineteenth-century London. Protagonist John Snow coordinated with Henry Whitehead, a local curate and trusted community member, to collect data on residents' daily habits and the incidence of the disease. Their interdisciplinary collaboration, use of maps as pioneers of epidemiology to document "street level knowledge,” and unfettered curiosity inspired my path as a data journalist and health researcher.
Urban New Orleans to Rural Thailand
Snow and Whitehead’s emphasis on community-based knowledge to solve public health crises parallels my innate respect for local people as experts of their lived experiences as exemplified in my citizen science approach in which community members lead research projects. Under Dr. Jylana Sheats, I used Stanford University’s Our Voice Framework to examine assets and barriers to healthy living for my Honors Thesis, “Storytelling Used as a Public Health Tool: Healthy Living and Food Access in New Orleans.” Citizen scientists used the Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool, an app–based environment assessment tool that captures photographs and geocoded audio narratives about neighborhood features they perceive as helping and hindering their active living choices. Participants collectively prioritized relevant issues to address, brainstormed potential solutions, and advocated for realistic policy-level changes with local decision makers. After using the DT in New Orleans, I was invited to use the tool in a dam-affected community in Thailand with the support of a Fulbright research grant.
Circling Back
Since studying abroad in Thailand in 2017, I stayed connected to public health and land rights issues in Isaan through Radical Grandma Collective, Isaan Record, and ENGAGE. In 2019, community leaders in Rasi Salai and faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University and Khon Kaen University expressed interest in hosting me as a researcher given my combined experiences in storytelling, previous training in the DT tool, and basic understanding of the political ecology in Isaan. The community’s history of resilience combined with previous exposure to citizen science methods also made them an ideal candidate for the OurVoice Framework; Starting in 2001, local fishermen served as citizen scientists, collecting data and insights on changes to the river in an effort to adopt environmentally sound water-management approaches and supports the restoration of wetlands.
Passing the Mic
I leveraged my academic positionality to facilitate engagement between community members and decision makers. This "passing the mic" strategy provided an effective platform for storytelling in which both the storyteller and listener benefit and transform.
While meeting the community’s request for documenting these impacts, I am curating an object-based storytelling exhibit to illuminate villagers’ evolving relationship to the Mun River and wetlands (see Objects). I believe the cross-pollination of ideas among social scientists, public health researchers, and oral historians can unearth new findings in all three fields.