As a medical anthropologist, Naomi Adelson's theoretical interest are founded on a critical study of bodies and health as well as with her on-going work with the Cree (Iiyiyu) of northern Quebec. Her initial work lead to the publication of Being Alive Well: Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being (University of Toronto Press, 2000) and other publications on the naturalization and medicalization of social and historical inequality, including “The Embodiment of Inequity: Health Disparities in Aboriginal Canada” (CJPH 2005) and “Discourses of Stress, Social Inequities, and the Everyday Worlds of First Nations Women in a Remote Northern Canadian Community” (Ethos 2008). Professor Adelson has conducted research in collaboration with the James Bay Cree since 1988 and is currently, in association with the Cree Board of Health, studying the internet as a health resource and the digital mediation of discourses of health.

Research

Ongoing

• Wellthcare Explorer (Wellthcare Pioneer, Pritpal S. Tamber) Launch Press Release | Fragmenting Communities and the Wantified Self (meeting 2)

• Contextualizing Health Information Communications Technologies: An Interdisciplinary National Workshop to Explore the Intersections of ICTs, Aboriginal Health, and Identity (Oct. 2011).

• Webs of Health: An Ethnographic Study of the Interface between Internet Technologies, Health, and Identity of First Nations Women. Ongoing. Principal Investigator. (Initially funded by SSHRC Northern Research Development Grant [2008-10]) (website)

Completed Projects

• National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research. CIHR Network Environments for Aboriginal Health Research (2007-11). Co-Investigator.

• Ethics in Conditions of Disaster and Deprivation: Learning from Health Workers' Narratives. CIHR Operating Grant, Ethics Priority (2007-10). Co-Investigator.

• Models and Metaphors of Healing in the Aboriginal Context. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Co-Investigator.

• Towards Equitable Reproductive Health & Health Services for Cambodian Refugee Women: An Ethnographic Analysis. Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS), with Beth Dewitt.

• Indigenous Women, Inequality and Health: Intercommunity, Interdisciplinary, and International Strategies for Research and Action. Principal Investigator. (Co-Principal Investigator: Dara Culhane). CIHR/SSHRC Joint Strategic Initiative Operating Grant 2003-4: Reducing Health Disparities and Promoting Equity for Vulnerable Populations.