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Cindy
Dell Clark (A.B., University of Pennsylvania;
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Associate
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
at Penn State University
and
Associate and Fellow of the Center for Children and Childhood
Studies.
In her most recent book, In
Sickness and in Play, published by Rutgers University
Press, Professor Clark looks at how children adapt to chronic
illness. Focussing on asthma and diabetes, she studies how
children experience symptoms, suffering, and treatment.
Clark shows how children commonly find ways to cope with
illness by using play, ritual, games, and humor.
| Research
and Publications |
Dr.
Cynthia Dell Clark's research addresses the role of imagination
in
childhood and culture, including in issues of health and
illness. A
cultural psychologist, she is an expert in children¹s
qualitative research
and child-centered ethnography and a fellow of the Society
for Applied
Anthropology. She has studied American children's
culture extensively, both
as a scholar and as an applied researcher.
Recent scholarly
articles
include: Tricks of Festival: Children, Enculturation
and American
Halloween (forthcoming in Ethos, 2005) Visual
Metaphors as Method in
Interviews with Children (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology,
Vol. 14, No.
2, December 2004), a review article on "Play" (Encyclopedia
of Applied
Psychology, 2004, Elsevier Press), and an essay on "Therapeutic
Advantages
of Play" (forthcoming in Play and Development: Evolutionary,
Sociocultural
and Functional Perspectives by Artin Goncu and Suzanne
Gaskins, 2005).
Her
publications also include two books. In Sickness
and In Play (2003, Rutgers
University Press) explores illness and "imaginal coping"
from the vantage
point of young children with asthma or diabetes. Flights
of Fancy, Leaps of
Faith: Children¹s Myths in Contemporary America (1998,
University of Chicago
Press) describes American children¹s involvement with
ritual and belief,
including Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
Clark's current projects deal with play-based intervention
to promote asthma
treatment adherence, the symbolic depiction of asthma in
popular movies, and
children¹s involvement in patriotic American holidays.
Clark's work has
been highlighted in the media and in publications for the
public, including
Parents, Parenting, Science News and Hemalog, a magazine
dealing with
bleeding disorders.
Nov
11, 2003.
Book Explores How Children Use Imagination To Battle
Chronic Illness
http://www.psu.edu/ur/2003/kidschronicillness.html
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