The experiences of mental health among immigrant communities in the Western world are often shaped by cultural expectations, societal pressures, and structural inequalities (Karasz et al. 2016). Yet, existing research often overlooks how collectivist cultural frameworks shape immigrant communities’ understandings of and responses to mental distress within predominantly individualistic societies. This study focuses on the South Asian immigrant community of Southall, London, a cultural enclave where collectivist traditions and communal values persist within the broader individualistic context of the city. Through qualitative ethnographic methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the research explores how communal values influence experiences of mental distress, patterns of help-seeking, and practices of care. The findings demonstrate that community-based forms of support and resilience operate alongside, and at times in tension with, dominant Western models of individualized care. By foregrounding collectivist perspectives, this study emphasizes the importance of community-based mental health frameworks and offers insights for interventions that are better attuned to immigrant populations navigating life in the West.

Approximately 1000 individuals, 80% of whom are Latin American immigrants, act as racehorse caretakers at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. Churchill Downs relies heavily on this workforce (i.e. the “backside workers”) as a low-cost labor force to uphold its prestigious and world-renowned reputation. While current literature largely explores racial stratification and wealth/labor dichotomies in this environment, little research has examined workers’ experiences with skill development surrounding horsemanship and the social processes through which expertise is acquired. Employing primary methods of semi-structured interviews with backside workers (i.e. hot walkers, grooms, and exercise riders) and participant observation of recreational events and morning exercise hours from June to August 2025, this study argues that backside workers acquire and advance horsemanship expertise through coworker mentorships and daily interactions with race horses, granting them an informal authority over daily racehorse care and operational decisions while remaining institutionally unrecognized. By focusing on skill development and workers' informal authority, this research challenges the assumption that low occupational status equates to lack of specialization in this setting. The backside workforce’s invisible expertise sustains both the daily functioning of the racing industry and the hierarchical labor structures that profit from workers' contributions.

Queer women consistently show higher rates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) compared to heterosexual women, a disparity documented in national epidemiological surveys such as NSDUH and large-scale cohort studies. Existing research often aggregates lesbian, bisexual, and queer women into broad “LGBTQ+” or “women” categories, obscuring subgroup-specific patterns and the structural dynamics that shape alcohol-related risk. This thesis examines the persistent overrepresentation of queer women in AUD prevalence data and interrogates how dominant addiction research frameworks explain, or fail to explain, this disparity. Drawing on epidemiological research, intersectional analyses, and qualitative studies of minority stress and gender expression, this project conceptualizes alcohol use among queer women as a socially and structurally patterned phenomenon rather than an individual pathology. In particular, it asks how alcohol use disorder is experienced, interpreted, and socially organized among queer women within gendered, racialized, and sexualized cultures of drinking. By synthesizing scholarship from addiction studies and gender and sexuality studies, I identify key conceptual gaps in prevailing explanatory models, particularly their limited engagement with gender performance, community norms, and intersecting systems of oppression. Ultimately, this thesis reframes elevated AUD prevalence not as deviance but as a patterned response to structural conditions that shape health, coping, belonging, and risk.

This research takes place within the transgender community located in Cork, Ireland, a city located on the southern tip of the nation. The study seeks to understand how transgender people use their community spaces. There are four main non-profit organizations as well as one government entity that is focused on within this study, and majority of participant observation is done at a variety of events these organizations threw during Cork Pride Week, July 2025. By conducting semi-structured interviews with seven participants and engaging in participant observation, it was found that transgender people utilize their community spaces for three main purposes: to establish their gender identity, find emotional stability, and form kinship. Using transformational works of gender by Butler (1990), West & Zimmerman (1987), and Connell (2010), the researcher additionally introduces a new concept of "the identity playground", where transgender people specifically utilize spaces dedicated to them to experiment and navigate the complexities of establishing an identity. This research hopes to expand on the growing field of transgender anthropology and strives to establish support for protection of public transgender spaces.

This research explores the connections between music, sound, and wellbeing for children with special needs in Bengaluru, India. During this six-week ethnographic study, participants discussed their experience in delivering therapeutic care and their knowledge surrounding healing through musical practice. This work examines the purpose music has played within the behavioral and social spaces through semi-structured interviews with practitioners, musicians, and parents, along with participant observations. In the past, research has focused on how music and sound are connected to Indian tradition and spiritual healing; however, little research focuses on the contemporary centers located around Bengaluru that have incorporated music practices into the lives of those with special needs. This paper will uniquely frame music and music therapy as a multidimensional path that can be connected to various purposes within the process of wellbeing among differently-abled students in Bengaluru, India. By studying these practices through their specific cultural frameworks, this paper works to understand the functionality of music therapy centers and their music within the realms of healing and therapy. The impact of music and sound with this focus can be viewed through three different lenses. The first being the qualities of the sound/music, the second being the non-musical skills and cues attached to the music, and the third being the community and social behavior that surrounds these practices.

Since before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iranian women have been fighting for gender equality in the country. Following the revolution, multiple laws were passed in which Iranian women’s civil and legal rights were severely restricted, one of the laws being a national hijab mandate enforced through police brutality. For 46 years, Iranian women have been fighting against the hijab mandate, with the biggest protests being in 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Jîna Amini in police custody. This thesis explores Iran’s 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement through the lens of transnational feminist critique, focusing on how Iranian women’s resistance has been shaped by Kurdish women’s struggle, and contributes to the broader global feminist movement. This project traces the historical and political uprisings that led to the Iranian women’s mobilization through understanding the foundation set from predating movements. Drawing on first-hand accounts of political prisoners, intersectional analysis, and qualitative studies, this thesis conceptualizes the importance of racial minorities to the success of the movements. This research pulls from Kurdish women’s accounts of life under the Islamic Regime and how it’s shaped by gender, race and ethnic differences. This thesis ultimately explains the importance of recognizing and emphasizing intersectionality within Iranian feminism and the overlooked impact of Kurdish women on the 2022 movement.

Archiving and preserving a Black Radical organization inherently happens in the shadows, as the activities of these movements were often conducted under the pressure of state surveillance. This research navigates that tension by examining how physical artifacts and digital records of the Black Panther Party are curated across two distinct sites: Oakland Museum of California, a state-funded museum, and The Museum @ The Mural, a grassroots institution. My methodology includes fieldwork at the museums, interviews with curators, and analyzing digital archival data. By comparing these sites, I investigate how state-funded versus grassroots curatorial practices engage in different representation strategies based on their unique affordances and limitations. The significance of my project adds to the overarching conversation of the importance of community-centered participation and representation in preserving cultural heritage.