麻豆视频

I am a cultural and medical anthropologist. My research focuses on the ways social relationships impact embodied experience, intersections between public policy and well-being, and the co-production of scientific knowledge and subjective experiences, including narrative creation.

My first book project (Fragile Kinships: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan,听Cornell University Press 2024) explored how social inclusion and exclusion shape holistic well-being.听 I conducted longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with people connected to the Japanese child welfare system, examining the stakes of family disconnection in a country where the family is considered the basic social unit. This project investigated how kinship ideologies articulate with discourses of Japanese national and cultural identity, how these discourses shape understandings of what is 鈥渘ormal,鈥� and how these concepts of normalcy are caught up in global circuits of knowledge surrounding human development, child rights, and concepts of 鈥渃are鈥� under the rubric of social welfare. This project鈥檚 analytical frameworks are shaped by kinship theory, medical anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies of science, and queer theory, investigating how past and present social relationships are experienced in visceral, embodied terms.

A new project, Knowing Air, takes the creation of and engagement with atmospheric data as a social field to study ethnographically. Knowing Air works to understand how shifting environmental factors鈥攊ncluding increased wildfire activity and the COVID-19 pandemic鈥攊mpact the ways people engage with air quality data (quantitative air quality indices and qualitative, sensory, story-based information) including measures of 鈥渋nvisible鈥� pollutants such as ozone. Focused on the Front Range of Colorado, and specifically Boulder County, this project explores how principles of environmental justice might be served by framing air quality as a problem of equity outside of industrial pollution corridors. Project collaborators span disciplines in academia (anthropology, mechanical engineering, and law) and incorporate industry, city government, and community organizations.

I am privileged to collaborate with the Louisville Historical Museum on their to support the collection and archiving of community experiences surrounding the devastating December 30, 2021 fire in Boulder County. I am also the Principal Investigator, with co-PI Arielle Milkman and /NOAA collaborators Owen Cooper and Audrey Gaudel, on a collaborative project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ National Weather Service project in Applied Meteorological Research, 鈥淪moke Exposure and Underserved Wildland Fire Communities.鈥�

Selected Publications

(please contact me if you are interested in forthcoming or under review material):

• In preparation: 鈥淎nonymity, Ancestry, and Family Registry: Adoption Debates in Contemporary Japan.鈥�
• 2024.听Goldfarb, Kathryn E.Fragile Kinships: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 听
• 2024.听Goldfarb, Kathryn E. and Sandra Bamford, eds.听Difficult Attachments: Anxieties of Kinship and Care. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.听
• 鈥�2024.听Goldfarb, Kathryn E. 鈥淣ot Family Care: Welcoming the Wild Things in Japanese Child Welfare.鈥� In听Difficult Attachments: Anxieties of Kinship and Care, edited by Kathryn E. Goldfarb and Sandra Bamford. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.听
• 鈥�2024.听Goldfarb, Kathryn E. and Sandra Bamford.听鈥淎mbivalent Affinities: Kinship Beyond Mutuality.鈥� In听Difficult Attachments: Anxieties of Kinship and Care, edited by Kathryn E. Goldfarb and Sandra Bamford. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• 2021. Goldfarb, Kathryn E.听.听positions: asia critique听1 August 2021; 29 (3): 469鈥�493.听
• 2020 Goldfarb, Kathryn E. and Janet Carsten. 鈥淭he 25th Anniversary of "鈥�.鈥澨�American Ethnologist听website, 4 October 2020
• 2020听鈥�.鈥� In 鈥淧andemic Diaries,鈥� Gabriela Manley, Bryan M. Dougan, and Carole McGranahan, eds.,听American Ethnologist听website, May 16.
• 2020 鈥�Relationships that Matter: Embodying Absent Kinships in the Japanese Child Welfare System.鈥� In听Handbook of Medical Humanities, ed. Alan Bleakley. London: Routledge, pp. 282-289.
• 2019听 鈥�Embodied relationality beyond 鈥榥ature鈥� vs 鈥榥urture鈥�: Materializing absent kinships in Japanese child welfare.鈥� In听The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Kinship, ed. S.听Bamford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.153-178.
• 2019听 鈥�Beyond blood ties: Intimate kinships in Japanese foster and adoptive care.鈥� In听Intimate Japan, ed. A. Alexy and E. Cook. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 181-198.
• 2017 In听Child鈥檚 Play: Multi-sensory Histories of Children and Childhood in Japan, ed. S. Fr眉hst眉ck and A. Walthall. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp243-263.
• 2017 David Bates Nima Bassiri, New York: Fordham University Press, 2016, 368pp.听Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 31(1):听 NA. doi:10.1111/maq.12318
• 2016 鈥淓ditor鈥檚 introduction鈥� for special issue.听Japanese Studies36(2): 151-154.
• 2016 Japanese Studies36(2): 173-189.
• 2016 Social Analysis60(2): 1-12.
• 2016 听Social Analysis60(2): 47-64.
• 2016 Blog post for Anthropology of Children and Youth and Anthropology of Aging collaborative research network on life course, Apr. 27
• 2015 听Social Science & Medicine143:271-278.
• 2015 Social Science Japan Journal. (Book review.) doi: 10.1093/ssjj/jyv023
• 2014 Somatosphere.net, May 29. (Book review.)
• 2013 鈥淛apan.鈥� In听Child Protection and Child Welfare: A Global Appraisal of Cultures, Policy and Practice. Penelope Welbourne and John Dixon, eds. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 144-169.
• 2011 鈥溾��Katei-teki y艒go鈥� ka 鈥榢atei de no y艒go鈥� ka: Nihon no satooya seido ni okeru bunkateki sokumen ni tsuite鈥� (鈥楬ousehold-style care鈥� or 鈥楥are in a household鈥�? Cultural factors shaping the Japanese foster care system),听Satooya dayori89. [In Japanese]
• 2010 In听Liberalizing, Feminizing and Popularizing Health Communications in Asia. K. K. Liew, ed. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 129-48.
• 2010 鈥淭he Violence of Blood Relationships: Lost and Found Kinship in Japan,鈥� Japan Anthropology Workshop Newsletter 54: 51-54.

Graduate Studies Information

Research interests

• Social studies of science (environmental science, neuroscience, mental health)
• Welfare and well-being, embodiment
• Kinship and relatedness
• Japan/ East Asia
• Collaborative and interdisciplinary research

Kathryn's Presentation on the听听"Underlying Conditions: 'Race,' Racism, and Health."

听

*Professor Goldfarb听is currently accepting Ph.D. applicants鈥� for Fall 2024