Language barriers are the most observable problem when working with participants or patients with non-English language preferences. However, individuals often need to navigate a wide range of challenges, including cultural differences, system familiarity, and taken-for-granted assumptions.
Dr. Hsieh will delve into the intersections of language, culture, and social reality to present a comprehensive cultural framework for intercultural health communication. Drawing from her extensive research and publications, she will highlight common blind spots in designing and conducting fieldwork and research with patients who speak different languages. The talk will conclude with strategies to foresee and address potential challenges, ensuring more effective and inclusive research design and interventions.
Elaine Hsieh (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004; J.D., University of Oklahoma, 2019) is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication, University of Minnesota and a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An award-winning author, Fulbright Scholar, and NIH-funded researcher, she has published extensively to examine the intersections of culture, language, health, and medicine in interpersonal and cross-cultural contexts.
Dr. Hsieh has served as the Associate Editor (Health Care Communication and Relations) for the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health during 2010-2017. She currently serves on the editorial/advisory boards of Health Communication, Interpreting, and Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, among others. Her work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, Patient Education and Counseling, Health Communication, Qualitative Health Research, and others. Papers presenting her model of bilingual health communication have received several national and international top paper awards. She authored two books, Bilingual Health Communication: Working with Interpreters in Cross-Cultural Care (Routledge) and Rethinking Culture in Health Communication: Social Interactions as Intercultural Encounters. She has been invited to major national and international conferences to present her work in the areas of bilingual health care. She regularly serves as a reviewer for grants and funded research for government agencies and research institutions in the U.S. and around the world.