In this spotlight interview, the department caught up with Irene Glasser, Adjunct Lecturer in Anthropology to learn more about her experience working with Kelly Fan '23 in Anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program. The Program aims to foster collaboration between faculty and students on faculty research.

"It was wonderful to have worked with Research Apprentice (now alum) Kelly Fan, anthropology and biology concentrator during the spring 2023 semester. We worked on an article together, along with two colleagues, on how to address the health disparity of the lack of smoking cessation services for people experiencing homelessness. Kelly has plans to become a physician and her project in the Apprenticeship coincides with her interest in medicine and health equity. 

Cigarette smoking is pervasive among people experiencing homelessness. It is a major cause of death of people 50 years old and older experiencing homelessness, outpacing deaths from drugs and alcohol. Peer support is an established approach to recovery in behavioral health, and yet has been largely neglected in the smoking cessation. Kelly and I found that even when the word “peer” is used in the field of smoking cessation, it does not have the same meaning of shared lived experience that it has in other domains.

Kelly is wonderfully qualified to be a partner on this project. She was an outstanding student in two of my courses: Anthropology of Addiction and Recovery and Anthropology of Homelessness. Kelly was selected for her field site in the later course to work as a volunteer with Shower to Empower, where people living out of doors or in temporary shelter come to take a hot shower, see a nurse if needed, and get fresh underwear. It is a major homelessness outreach program in Rhode Island. This volunteer work also offered Kelly a first hand look at the place of smoking within homeless communities." 

Read Kelly Fan's spotlight interview 

Learn more about Anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program