Preliminary analysis part A: Making sense of illness and the illness experience: Anthropologist Byron Good has said that “disease happens in a body, but illness happens in a life.” The COVID-19 pandemic, also, has affected nearly every aspect of our everyday lives. Identify THREE topics/issues that illustrate this relationship or that reflect on the way your interviewee understands their illness or pandemic experience. For each topic, write a paragraph (approximately 150-200 words) describing the connection you see to your interviewee’s experience. Potential topics to consider include, but are not limited to: the sick role; effects of illness or the pandemic on social relationships; effects of illness or the pandemic on sense of self/identity; stigma and deviance; ritual practices; understandings of normalcy; etc.
Preliminary analysis part B: Sociocultural context: Our individual experiences are influenced by the sociocultural contexts in which we live; sickness and epidemics have always been politicized events. Identify THREE topics/issues that illustrate this influence. For each topic, write a paragraph (approximately 150-200 words) describing the connection you see to your interviewee’s experience. Potential topics to consider include, but are not limited to: the culture/structure of biomedicine or other healing systems; disease;illness metaphors; left and right hands of the state; social inequality (syndemics, structural vulnerability, racism, etc.); the political economy of health care; health care policy; health activism; etc.
