Health otherwise: redefining what counts in health 

In this collaborative ethnographic project, I explore how diverse knowledges are mobilized by public health advocates to redefine public health narratives and elicit the formation of new moral and ethical subjects. Situated in Louisiana, a state in which poor health outcomes has long been framed by governing elites as an inevitable problem, I ask: 1) How is the transformation of public health agendas to address structural inequities constrained by expert institutional cultures that have long privileged narratives of individualistic fatalism (i.e. individuals are responsible for their fate) and social dysfunction (i.e. framing culture as a barrier to the efficient application of science)? 2) How are diverse knowledges mobilized to build relationships and inform policy changes? In the quest for better forms of accountability, how is engaged research (and the relationships it produces) redefining what counts in/as health? 3) What role can ethnography play in transforming public health agendas?