Look for an announcement and symposium schedule on the STS Department website!

Well, it isn’t like I don’t have anything on my plate. I’m now full time with Cultural Anthropology, the journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology. I’ve been Managing Editor on a part-time basis for the last four years, but the journal and its website (which I manage) has expanded greatly during that time. To reflect this we’ve added Program Director to my job description. Look for the Society of Cultural Anthropology to relaunch its website in early September.

In addition to my position with Cultural Anthropology, I’ll be teaching two undergraduate courses for the Department of Science and Technology Studies this Fall. Both are core courses for the STS major, Senior Project and Public Service Internship. I’m really looking forward to teaching again, and after just finishing my own project, I’m excited to work with others developing research projects.

I’m also starting a second yoga teacher training this Fall, a Kundalini teacher training at the Baba Siri Chand Yoga and Retreat Center in Millis, MA. This is a nine-month training led by Hari Kaur Khalsa.

In other words its not that I don’t have projects to get me out of bed in the morning! I love what I do and have a lot going on. At the same time I think I need to acknowledge that some transition is happening. All these other projects are not the equivalent of working on a doctoral degree or writing a dissertation. They are projects of a different kind. Filing the dissertation marks a kind of end, and a beginning. This shouldn’t be covered over, ignored, down-played or side-stepped (which is exactly what I have been doing these past two weeks). It can’t be covered over because I feel the conclusion even if I won’t acknowledge it. So this morning I decided that I’m going to stop covering over the end, and start thinking about what kind of beginning I want to create.

Perhaps I’m being a typical Type A, pledging to work the transition. Undoubtedly, new structures, habits, and perspectives are bound to support my transition from grad school to…. whatever is next. (I spent some time reading about Type A personalities this morning. I hear the term from time to time but know nothing of its origins, and before I refer to myself as something I like to know its genealogy. Not sure what I think of it, but I’ll just keep it here as a familiar representation that serves to call up a particular image.)

Where to begin? Well, I decided to start with this website of mine. It desperately needs updating. A few times over the past nine months I started to update, changing the theme and revising site content. I never finished though; the dissertation superseded everything. So I’m using my website as a jumping off point, not only updating information, but also changing up the design and redefining the projects I’m working on, and want to be working on, this year. Giving the site a more central and active place in my work world is one way to shape the transition that I’m experiencing. (One site I read this morning stated that Type A’s are very controlling… hmmm…)

What’s new? Well, I finished my dissertation. That’s something. There is a lot going on with Cultural Anthropology right now, a lot of really exciting developments. The Asthma Files, the collaborative social science research that I’ve been doing for the past two and a half years, is also expanding. And of course yoga: I’ve been spending more time researching and practicing yoga. I’ll be writing about all these things — developments in my dissertation research, Cultural Anthropology’s expansion, and my experiences with yoga — on this site. You can find some outdated information on these things here and here. Again, I’ll be updating this information in the coming weeks.

One thing that worries me is having a site that covers so many different things — this site bridges three very different projects: my dissertation research, my work with Cultural Anthropology, and lessons in yoga. I know that it can be problematic to have a site that’s unfocused in this way, trying to cover too much, for example. On the other hand, this is my site, and this is what I do. Who I am. I’m going to stop worrying over being multifaceted on www.alikenner.com, and use this space to explore and experiment with representation, hoping that play in this space spurs me to advance my projects in new ways. In this sense, I take inspiration from my dear friend Adrienne Stiles, who recently created her own blog.

Anyway, expect updates on information and different visual designs on www.alikenner.com over the coming weeks as I play with transition and beginning.

Anyway, definitely check out Suber’s work and stay tuned for more writing on open access and emerging digital communities.

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How bad is air pollution for your health? Is it just about your lungs and respiratory system? Are people with existing conditions (such as asthma) the only ones who should be concerned, or should we, as a society, be concerned about how air pollution affects our bodies? The resounding answer is ‘yes’, we are all impacted by air pollution, and the affect goes beyond our lungs.

An article published in this week’s U.S. News and World Report explored the issue of air pollution, explaining the extent to which pollutants like greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) and particulate matter impact the body. Although we typically associate air pollution with lung disease, the lungs are merely the first organ hit by air toxins. If we think about how the lungs function – as a zone of exchange where air is received, converted, and transported to different places both within and back out of the body – it’s easy to imagine how the lungs (and the air that the lungs receive) impact other organs. Most of the time, different parts of our body are thought of, spoken of, and treated in isolation – heart, brain, right arm, muscle, blood – but really they are all intimately and intricately connected. And the cellular level is just one way to think about physiological connections.

According to Aruni Bhatnagar, an environmental cardiology researcher at the University of Louisville, “People thought that when we inhale pollutants the lung is the main target, but the lung is surprisingly resilient. It turns out the cardiovascular effects are predominant.” Bad air days may be responsible for more than asthma attacks and seasonal allergies; a broader range of acute symptoms and chronic conditions may be implicated when air quality hits hazardous levels. Air pollutants “incite processes that lead to high blood pressure, blood clotting, and electrical instability in the heart, which can translate into heart attack, stroke, and sudden cardiac death. Even short-term exposure can be hazardous. Research shows spikes in cardiac deaths, emergency room visits, and hospital admissions in the hours and days that follow a spike in cities’ levels of particulate matter.” You can get a sense of how respiration affects your body by taking a few minutes to observe your breathing.

Sitting, standing, or lying down, close your eyes. Take a deep breath in, the deepest breath you can muster. Your stomach and chest should expand. Your shoulders and collar bones might rise. You might feel tense, and if that’s the case, try and relax. When you’ve filled up completely, take a second to note how you feel. Are you uncomfortable? Trembling? Struggling? Calm? When was the last time you inhaled so deeply? Exhale, slowly, and watch your body contract. You probably feel a bit different? A little empty? Relaxed? Take another deep inhale, but don’t rush it. Try counting to see how long it takes you to fill up. Then exhale and count back down trying to match the length of time it took you to inhale. Draw your breath out, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as possible. Do this cycle (inhaling and exhaling) ten times. At the end, how do you feel? Probably a bit different. There is a good chance you’ll notice that your body and mind are in a different place then when you started this exercise. Your heart rate has slowed. Muscles have relaxed. You may feel a sense of calm. You may be more aware of your surroundings. What else has changed?

If, in the few minutes that it took you to take ten deep breaths, you experienced any change in state, you can probably extrapolate and recognize that breathing is always affecting your entire body, regardless of whether or not you’re paying attention. This includes the nervous, circulatory, digestive, and muscular systems, all of which function ceaselessly, and in conjunction, without our noticing. The more deeply you breath, the greater the effect, but always, the breath is moving air in and out of your body – and anything in that air as well. In the case of particulate matter, which can be as small as one-thirtieth width of human hair, particles may easily get lodged in the pulmonary organs, and the smallest particles could even make their way into the blood stream.

While the U.S. News and World Report article ends by saying there is little individuals can do to reduce air pollution – instead citing the need for policy measures that would cut fossil fuel emissions – the fact that our lung is “surprisingly resilient” makes me wonder if improved lung function might help filter toxins. Might we carry tools for toxic defense? What anatomical systems and processes might we draw on to ward off the impact of air pollution? Food for thought; food that can, in no way, substitute for much more effective air quality policies…

December is a great time of year, one of my favorites! … but if there is any time of the year when I find myself more susceptible to losing focus, getting carried away, or just not being mindful… it’s December. There are obvious reasons for this – the end of the academic semester, the AAA meetings, and holiday culture are all notable. And its not that I’m not mindful; I’m mindful of lots of things, too many things maybe… The disconnect for me is that I’m less mindful of my body. I find that there is so much going on around me that it’s easy to be everywhere except present in my body, conscious of appetite, fatigue, energy, breath, and joy. I’m of the opinion that its pretty important to be in your body, to cultivate an awareness of how you feel and move. So a few weeks ago I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile – I went to a workshop led by Daniel Orlansky called Kundalini Yoga: The Power of the Breath. I thought this would be a perfect way to cleanse and re-focus myself before the new year, and also to learn more about what yoga has to say on breath and life.

Of course, if you practice yoga you know that prana, or life force, is most directly controlled by breath; this is what pranayama is all about – the suspension, restraint, and control of breath, or life force. Pranayama is the fourth limb of yoga; its foundational for asana and dhyana, the third and seventh limbs of yoga. Breath control allows for detoxification, concentration, and the general ability to work with your own personal energy. Its very powerful.

Much of the workshop focused on pranayama and Daniel talked a lot about the relationship between how we breath and our experience of the world. Our mornings began at 6:30 with an hour long session of yoga. This, in my opinion, is the best time to practice kundalini yoga. It really starts your day off on the right foot. This was followed by a break for breakfast, a morning session, a break for lunch, an afternoon session, dinner, and then some event in the evening. All of our sessions were filled, not only with pranayama and kriyas but also with chanting. As Daniel said, chanting is about breath. When you’re chanting, your breath moves rhythmically.

Needless to say, I left the workshop feeling very focused and energized. I highly recommend pranayama, kundalini yoga, and Daniel Orlansky. And I doubt it will be long before I follow up with posts on all three… particularly since I’ll be embarking upon a yoga teacher training program with Sondra Loring and Raghunath later this Spring.

Born of the Ship Channel, the city of Houston owes not only its foundation, but its prosperity, to the Buffalo Bayou, government legislation, and continual technoscientific innovation — all of which play a crucial role in the life of the Channel. First navigated in 1837 by the Laura steamship, today, the Port of Houston is one of the largest ports in the world. Originally a mere six feet deep, the channel now measure 45 feet in depth with a width of 530 feet; expansion was made possible by the Water Resources Development Act of 1996, signed by then President Clinton. Local bonds and federal monies funded the most recent expansion, as has been the case in previous developments to the Channel. The 50-mile Ship Channel receives over 7,000 ships a year and is home to a $15 billion petrochemical complex — the largest in the US and second largest in the world. Corporate facilities lining the Channel include, Exxon/Mobil, Shell, Cargill, Cemex, Houston Fuel, Chevron, Texas Petrochemical, and Valero.

Of course, economic prosperity usually carries some cost. In 2007 epidemiologists at the University of Texas School of Public Health published a study that found that children living within two miles of the Ship Channel had a “56% higher risk for childhood leukemia than those living more than 10 miles away.”  n addition to looking at the relationship between cancer and proximity to the Ship Channel, researchers also looked at hazardous air pollutants benzene and 1-3 butadiene — two ambient pollutants that have been particularly problematic for the greater Houston area. These chemicals are produced by industrial processing among Ship Channel facilities. The 18 month study was “conducted at the request of the City of Houston in conjunction with ongoing efforts to reduce air quality health risks in Harris County.”

Anderson Cooper’s “Planet in Peril” also covered cancer along the Houston Ship Channel in the Fall of 2007. You can watch the video or read about it here.

The Ship Channel, of course, signals transportation, the movement of goods from one place to another. When Brandon, Kim, Mike and I drove around the Ship Channel last Saturday, one of the many things that stood out to me was the prevalence of trucks and trains within facility grounds. Box cars and trailers appeared as frequently as smoke stacks. Next I’ll report on Houston traffic, although this won’t be the last word on the Channel…