Myra Bluebond-Langner (B.A., Temple; Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana) is Professor and True Colours Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, University College London, Institute of Child Health (appointed 2010) Board of Governors' Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ (2010-present-currently on leave) Honorary Contract, Palliative Care Service, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London (2011-present). She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Children and Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, Camden and the Editor of the Rutgers University Press Book Series in Childhood Studies.
She received the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and Society for Applied Anthropology in 1987, the Warren Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching from Rutgers University in 1990, the Charles Corr Award for contributions to the literature on children and death from Children’s Hospice International in 1997 and the Research Recognition Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling in 2000, and the Rutgers University Board of Trustees Award for Research Excellence (2009).
Myra Bluebond-Langner is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the: National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies, Schumann Fund for NJ, as well as the Olivia Hodson, Howard, John S. and James L. Knight, Annie E. Casey, Verizon, Geraldine Dodge, Stanley Thomas Johnson, Kurr, William Penn, and Fannie E. Rippel Foundations.
Author of several articles in journals and edited collections; she is best known for The Private Worlds of Dying Children (Princeton University Press, 1978), In the Shadow of Illness: Parents and Siblings of the Chronically Ill Child (Princeton University Press, 1996) and The Psychosocial Aspects of Cystic Fibrosis (with Denise Angst and Bryan Lask, Arnold and Oxford University Press Publishers, 2001).
Myra Bluebond-Langner serves on the editorial boards of Children and Society, Clincal Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Ethos: Journal of the Society of Psychological Anthropology, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying. 

Dr. Bluebond-Langner is working on a book Physicians' Voices, Parents Choices: Decision Making for Children With Cancer When Cure is Not Likely. The book is based on a two year ethnographic, participant-observation study of the children, parents and clinicians at two major pediatric oncology centers – one in the US, one in England.

Currently, Prof. Bluebond-Langner is on leave from Rutgers University, serving as the UK’s first chair of pediatric palliative care at the University College London Institute of Child Health.

>>> Full CV - revised Aug 2011 - 21 pages (pdf)

Rajapakse D, Finella Craig, C, Boggs T, Howard R, Walker, S, Bluebond-Langner M: Optimising Parenteral Analgesia In Children With Life-Limiting Conditions and Life Threatening Illnesses: Developing A Home Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) Service For Children and Young People With Life-Limiting Conditions and Life threatening Illnesses (2011).

Craig F, Bluebond-Langner M: Changing The Culture Of Care In Tertiary Centres: Integrating Palliative Care Services Into The Care And Treatment Of Children With Life-Limiting Conditions And Life-Threatening Illness (2010-2011).

O'Gorman B, Craig F, Bluebond-Langner M: Improving Access To Spiritual Support For Children And Young People With Life-Limiting Conditions And Life-Threatening Illnesses, Their Parents And Other Family Members: The Development Of A Spiritual Support Network Across North Central London That Is Sustainable And Accessible To Families From All Faith Backgrounds (2010-2011).

Mancini A, Craig F, Bluebond-Langner M: Improving Access To Palliative Care Support For Babies And Families: Educational Program To Introduce Principles, Practices And Resources In Palliative Care Services In Neonatal Units Across Greater London (2010-2011).

Ellis, P and Bluebond-Langner M, Rapid Response For Home Care At End Of Life: A Pilot Project In North East London (2010-2011).

Ethnographic Research

Gibson F, Kelly D, Kumpunen S, Horstman M, Bluebond-Langner M: Talking With Children With Cancer About Their Disease And Treatment: A Prospective Study To Improve Practice (2011-2012).

Pilot Study Utilizing Grounded Theory in the analysis of semi-structured, open-ended interviews

Bluebond-Langner M, Jones. L, Kelly, P, Sterling C, Craig F. Helmsley, J, Franck L. Advance Care Planning For Children And Young People With Life Threatening Conditions And Life Limiting Illness: Parents' Experiences In Planning For Their Child's Care And Treatment.

Beecham E, Jones L, Bluebond-Langner, M: The Place Of Care In The Face Of Deterioration And Death In Children And Young People With Life-Limiting Conditions And Life-Threatening Illnesses.

Books:
In the Shadow of Illness: Parents and Siblings of the Chronically Ill Child. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Paperback edition: May, 2000.

The Private World of Dying Children. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978. * First paperback edition, 1980. Remains in print.
* Translated into Japanese and published by Nihon, Kango, Kyokai, Shuppankai. Tokyo, Japan. 1990. Copies available in U.S. 1993.

Edited Collections:

Children, Childhoods and Childhood Studies with Jill Korbin. Special In Focus Section of The American Anthropologist. Forthcoming April 2007.

Psychosocial Aspects of Cystic Fibrosis. With Bryan Lask and Denise Angst. London: Arnold Publishers, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Research in Thanatology: A Critical Appraisal. Special Issue of Omega, Volume 18, Number 4, Spring, 1988.

Selected Articles:

“It’s Back: Children’s Understanding and Communication About their Cancer When Cure Is Not Likely”  With Megan Nordquest Schwaille. In Healing the World’s Children: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Child Health in the Twentieth Century. George Weisz, Cynthia Comacchio and Janet Golden, editors. Canada: McGill-Queens University Press. 2008.

"I'm an anthropologist”: Adolescents Studying Children and Each Other." Anthropology News Vol 49, No. 4, April 2008.

“Using Participant Observation in Pediatric Health Care Settings: Ethical Challenges and Solutions” with  F. Carnivale, M.E. MacDonald and P. McKeever.  In Journal of Child Health Care  Vol. 12. No.1, January 2008

“Understanding Parents’ Approaches to Care and Treatment of Children With Cancer When Standard   Therapy Has Failed” with Jean Belasco, Ann Goldman and Carmen Belasco. Accepted February 26,   2007 for publication in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol.25, No.17, June 10, 2007.

“Challenges and Opportunities in the Anthropology of Childhood” With Jill Korbin in The American  Anthropologist. Vol.109, No.2, June, 2007

“Children’s Views of Death.” With Amy DeCicco In Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care for Children. Ann Goldman, Stephen Lieben, & Richard Harnes editors. Oxford University Press. 2006
[NB Volume received first prize for new edited book at 2006 Royal Society of Medicine Book Awards] 

"Involving Children with Life-Shortening Illnesses in Decisions About Participation in Clinical Research: A Proposal for Shuttle Diplomacy and Negotiation.” In Ethics and Research with Children. Eric Kodish, editor. Oxford University Press. 2005.

"Children’s Views of Death and Illness.” In Oxford Textbooks of Pediatric Palliative Care. Ann Goldman, Stephen Lieben, & Richard Harnes, editors. Oxford University Press. 2005

"A Child’s View of Death.” In Current Paediatrics, Volume 4, Number 4, December, 1994.

"Olga’s New Year.” In Dying, Death and Bereavement: Theoretical Perspectives and Other Ways of Knowing. Inge Corless, Barbara Germino and Marianne Pittman, editors. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. Fall, 1993.

"Chronically and Terminally Ill Children: Research Directions for the 90's.” In Loss, Grief and Care, Volume 6, Number 1, pages 61-72, 1992.
[NB Permission also given for reprinting in The Thanatology Community and the Needs of the Movement, Elizabeth Clarke, editor. New York: Haworth Press, 1992.]

"The Impact of AIDS Education on College Student’s AIDS Related Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior.” With Ted Goertzel. In Journal of American College Health, Volume 40, Number 2, pages 87-92, September, 1991.

"Living With Cystic Fibrosis: The Well Sibling’s Perspective.” In Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Volume 5, Number 2, pages 133-152, June 1991.

"Pediatric Cancer Patient’s Peer Relationships The Impact of an Oncology Camp Experience.” With Dale Perkel and Ted Goertzel. In Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, Volume 9, Number 2, pages 67-80, Summer, 1991.

"Living With Cystic Fibrosis: A Family Affair.” In Young People and Death, John D. Morgan, editor. Philadelphia: Charles Press, 1991.
[NB This paper is a revised and updated version of an article with the same title that appeared in Cystic Fibrosis: Soma and Psyche, Daniel Schidlow, editor. Pennsylvania: McNeil Laboratories, 1987.]

"Children’s Knowledge of Cancer and Its Treatment: The Impact of An Oncology Camp Experience.“ With Dale Perkel and Ted Goertzel. In Journal.of Pediatrics, Volume 116, Number 2, pages 207-214, February, 1990.
[NB Abstract and commentary in Pediatric Alert, Volume 15, Number 7, March, 1990].

"Children, Dying.” In The Encyclopedia of Death, Robert Kastenbaum, editor-in-chief. Arizona: Oryx Press, 1989.

"Siblings of Dying Children.” In The Encyclopedia of Death, Robert Kastenbaum, editor-in-chief. Arizona: Oryx Press, 1989.

"Illness and Death in the Lives of Children and Their Families.” In Death Studies, Volume 13, Number 1, pages 1-16, Spring, 1989.
[NB Reprinting at the request of the editor, Ken Doka, In Children Mourning, Mourning Children. Bristol, Pa: Taylor and Francis and the Hospice Foundation of America, 1995].

"Wither Thou Goest?” In Omega,Volume 18, Number 4, pages 257-263, Spring, 1988.

"Knowing, Concealing And Revealing: Communication in Terminally Ill Children.” In Children and Their Organizations. T. Sieber & A. Gordon, editors. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1981.

"Comments on Sex, Incest and Death: Initiation Rites Reconsidered.” In Current Anthropology, Volume 18, Number 2, page 192, 1977.

"Meanings of Death to Children.” In New Meanings of Death. Herman Feifel, editor. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977.
[NB: This book received the 1977 American Journal of Nursing Book Award]

"How I Came to Study Dying Children.” In Rhetorical Considerations, Harry Brendt and William Lutz, editors. Cambridge: Withrop (a division of Prentice Hall), 1976.

"I Know, Do You?: A Survey of Awareness, Communication and Coping in Terminally Ill Children.” In Anticipatory Grief. Bernard Schoenberg et al, editors. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.

Honors and Awards

April 2009	Rutgers University Board of Trustees Award for Research Excellence
April 2000	Association for Death Education and Counseling Research Recognition Award
November 1997	Charles A. Corr Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature On Children and Death. Presented by Children’s Hospice International
May 1990	Warren I. Sussman Award for Excellence in College Teaching. Presented by Rutgers University
November 1987	Margaret Mead Award. Presented jointly by the American Anthropological Association and The Society for Applied Anthropology
June 1969	Milton Moses Memorial Award in Anthropology, Temple University
June 1965	Albert Sachs Memorial Prize for General Excellence in All Studies, Gratz College

Grants and Fellowships

RESEARCH:

Olivia Hodson Foundation Grant (co applicant) (2010-2012)
Department of Health, United Kingdom grant (2011).
Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Fellowship, Case Western Reserve University (Fall 2005).
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2005; 1981-82);
Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation (Switzerland) (2002-2004);
Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies (2003-2004; 2002-2003, 2001-2002, 2000-2001, 2005-2006; 2006-2007);
REACH Fund, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, England (2001-2003);
Fannie E. Rippel Foundation (2000-2002);
Campbell Soup Foundation (2000);
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (2001-2002;1999-2000);
Olivia Hodson Foundation Fellowship (1998-1999);
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1992-1993);
Howard Foundation Fellowship (1988-1989);
American Cancer Society Grant (1986-87);
National Science Foundation Grant (1984-87);
Rutgers University Research Council Grants (1987-88; 1984-85; 1980-81; 1975);
Rutgers University Research Council Study Leaves (1985; 1977);
Rutgers University Research Council Summer Fellowship (1976);
National Science Foundation Fellowship-Traineeship (1970-74);
University of Illinois Summer Research Grant (1971);
Philadelphia Board of Education Tuition Scholarship (1965-1969).

For Evaluation Research For Intervention, Demonstration, Education and Service Development Projects in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, Department of Health, England (2010-2011)

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
Committee on Multiculturalism Teaching Grant, Rutgers University (1997-1998).
Rutgers University Dialogues Program (2002-2003)
Department of Higher Education of New Jersey, Technological Literacy Program (1987-90).
Department of Higher Education of New Jersey, Humanities Grants Program (1984-85).
Rockower Foundation Teacher Initiated Experimentation Grant (1974).

CENTER FOR CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD STUDIES
The Wm. Penn Foundation (2003-2005, Summer 2002).
The Kurr Foundation (2003, 2004, 2005).
Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies (2003-2004; 2002-2003, 2001-2002, 2000-2001).
Rutgers University SROA Program (2001-2002, 2000-2001).
Rutgers University Board of Governors (2002-2003)