UTPAL SANDESARA

Over the past 30 years, selective abortion of female fetuses has become a disturbingly routine form of family planning in India, with expert estimates of the total exceeding half a million. Countless legal and policy measures aim to curb what has widely come to be seen as a public “crisis,” but we know almost nothing about the experiences of families seeking the service or clinicians providing it. Drawing on 18 months of clinic-based fieldwork, anthropologist and physician-in-training Utpal Sandesara shines new light on the lived drama of sex selection. Taking listeners through a secretive black market, the sitting rooms of common households,

and the dusty halls of government, Sandesara provocatively challenges longstanding approaches in public health. In the process, he illustrates the potential value of clinical research as a tool for understanding and addressing troubling social problems. 

Reception to follow.

Sponsored by: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Health Administration and Policy

UMBC is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all faculty, staff, students, and visitors. If you would like to request accommodations (e.g., ASL interpreters, captioning, wheelchair access, etc.) for this event due to a disability, please notify us at least two weeks prior to the event. Requests received after that time cannot be guaranteed, but we will do our best to make arrangements for program access. Please contact us at socialscience@umbc.edu with your specific request and be sure to include the event title, date, and time.

The Summer Research Initiative (SRI) was created in 1999 by the Office of the Dean in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) and is supported by the Office of the Provost, the Graduate School, the Office of the Vice President for Research and the College. The program is designed to encourage and enhance the diversity of scholars working in the social and behavioral science fields.

In that spirit, we are interested in receiving applications to the program from a broad spectrum of students, including African Americans, Latino/Hispanics, American Indian/Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, as well as students with research interests related to diverse communities.

The goals of the SRI are to:

• Increase the knowledge of, and interest in, doctoral-level training in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences;
• Provide rising juniors and seniors an opportunity to learn about graduate studies and the range of research and scholarship in the social, behavioral and economic sciences at the University of Maryland;
• Provide a laboratory experience that enhances basic research knowledge and skills;
• Provide lectures, workshops, didactic exchanges and other programming to enhance students' knowledge of the graduate application process, negotiating the academic rigors and professional and personal challenges encountered in graduate school, and developing career paths in social, behavioral and economic sciences; and
• Provide mentoring and networking opportunities for students to advance their training in the social, behavioral and economic sciences.

The SRI is part of the College's longstanding commitment to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities who pursue graduate degrees in the social, behavioral and economic sciences. According to 2016 data from the magazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, the university ranks 12th in the country in the number of graduate and professional degrees awarded and 28th in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to underrepresented minority students. The Summer Research Initiative is an integral part of our efforts.

The application for the 2019 SRI will be available from November 1, 2018 to February 10, 2019. Applications will be reviewed February – March 2019, and selection announcements will be made beginning April 2019. 

The actual program runs 8 weeks, from June 3 – July 26, 2019. Students are required to arrive on campus on Saturday, June 1 for mandatory Saturday and Sunday program orientation, but SRI programming will officially begin on Monday, June 3.

Takashi Yamashita, PhD, SAHAP faculty, recently published an article in the Public Health Post.  See the link below.