Becky Read Wahidi
My name is Mary Rebecca Read Wahidi, but everyone who knows me calls me Becky. My research interests are in Hispanic immigration to the rural South. I have spent the last few years exploring the ways that a Catholic Church in rural Mississippi is meeting the needs of its congregation of migrant workers. The Church provides support in a number of ways, from assistance accessing social services, such as legal services and healthcare, to providing a space to carry out traditional rituals, such as the Feast Day of Our lady of Guadalupe.
I am proud to say that I just completed my first year of the PhD program in BioCultural Medical Anthropology here at the University of Alabama, and what a year it was. In addition to taking a number of amazing classes alongside some of the most outstanding students I could imagine, I also worked as a TA for two excellent cultural anthropology professors, I put together and conducted a pilot study that will inform my upcoming dissertation, I chaired a session and presented a paper at the Society for Applied Anthropology meeting in Mexico, I had the honor of being elected as the next student representative for the Society for Medical Anthropology, and, most importantly, I got married.
I look forward to year two, and expect it to be just as action-packed as the last one!!
Contact Ms. Read Wahidi at: mrread@crimson.ua.edu