Cindi SturtzSreetharan
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SHESC bldg 266 ASU P.O. Box 872402 Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
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Mail code: 2402Campus: Tempe
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Cindi SturtzSreetharan earned a bachelor's in international relations from Willamette University; an master's in Asian studies from the University of Oregon; and a doctorate in Anthropology from University of California at Davis. To date, her interests have centered on a language-in-interaction approach to the construction of masculinity; specifically, most of her work has focused on how Japanese men use language as a resource for creating, maintaining, or refuting a masculine identity. More recently she has turned her attention to the intersection of language, the body, and medicine.
- Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California-Davis
- M.A. Asian Studies, University of Oregon
- B.A. International Relations, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
SturtzSreetharan, C.L., M. Ghorbani, A. Wutich, A. Brewis. Deny, Reassure, and Deflect: Evidence and Implications of Forms and Norms of Fat Talk. Cross Cultural Research (2023)
Schuster, R., A. Wutich, K. Wachter, A. Brewis, C.L. SturtzSreetharan, and G. Boateng. Design for longitudinal cross-cultural mixed methods research. ISSBD Bulletin, 1(83): 6-9. Supplement to International Journal of Behavioral Development 47(3): May. (2023)
Ruth A., A. Brewis, M. Beresford, M.E. Smith, C.M. Stojanowski, C.L. SturtzSreetharan (20%), and A. Wutich. Accepted. Lab-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (LUREs): Evidence of Effectiveness from the Social Sciences. Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research
Choudhary, N., C.L. SturtzSreetharan (40%), S. Trainer, A Brewis, A Wutich, K Clancy, U Fatima, & MJ Hossain. Managing menstruation with dignity: Worries, Stress and Mental Health in two water-scarce urban communities in India. Global Public Health. (2023)
Dimitrov Ulian, M., R. Fernandez Unsain, R. Rocha Franco, M. Aurélio Santo, A Brewis, S. Trainer, C. L. SturtzSreetharan (10%), A. Wutich, B. Gualano, & F. Baeza Scagliusi. Weight stigma after bariatric surgery: A qualitative study with Brazilian women. PLoSOne (2023)
Schuster, R., A. Brewis, A Wutich, C. Safi, T. Elegido Vanrespaille, G. Bowen, C.L. SturtzSreetharan (10%), & P. Ochandarena. Individual interviews versus focus groups for evaluations of international development programs: Systematic testing of method performance to elicit sensitive information in a justice study in Haiti. American Journal of Evaluation, 97. (2023) doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2022.102208
Ruth, A., K. Woolard, J. Hardin, T. Sangaramoorthy, A. Wutich, H.R. Bernard, A. Brewis, M. Beresford, C.L. SturtzSreetharan, B. Brayboy, H. Dengah II, C.C. Gravlee, G. Guest, K. Harper, P. Mahdavi, S.M. Mattison, M. Moritz, R. Negrón, B.A. Piperata, J.G. Snodgrass & R. Zarger. Teaching Ethnography: The State of the Art. Human Organization 81(4): https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.4.401. (2022)
DuBois, L.Z., SturtzSreetharan, C.L., MacFife, B., Puckett, J.A., Jagielski, A. Dunn, T., Anderson, T., Hope, D.A., Mocarski, R., Juster, R.P. Trans and Gender diverse people’s experience wearing face masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary findings from data across 4 States in the U.S. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. (2022).
Ruth, A., A. Brewis, C. SturtzSreetharan, A. Wutich & C. Stojanowski. Effectiveness of Online Social Science UREs: Exploratory Evidence. Frontiers in Education (2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.849908
Beresford, M, Wutich, A., Brewis, A., du Bray, M., Stotts, R., Ruth, A., SturtzSreetharan, CL. Coding Qualitative Data at Scale: Guidance for Large Coder Teams Based on 18 Studies. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. (2022)
Ruth, A., K Woolard, T. Sangaramoorthy, B. McKinley Jones Brayboy, M. Beresford, A. Brewis, H. R. Bernard, M. Z. Glegziabher , J. Hardin, K. Harper, P. Mahdavi, J. G. Snodgrass, C. SturtzSreetharan, A. Wutich. Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation. Teaching Anthropology (2022)
Trainer, S, SturtzSreetharan, C.L., Wutich, A., Brewis, A, & Hardin, J. Fat is all my fault: Globalized metathemes of body self-blame. MAQ DOI: 10.1111/maq.12687 (2021)
SturtzSreetharan, C.L., A.A. Brewis, J. Hardin, S. Trainer, A. Wutich. Fat-in-Four-Cultures: A Global Ethnography of Weight. University of Toronto Press. (2021).
SturtzSreetharan, C.L., S. Trainer, A. Brewis. The Harm Inflicted by Polite Concern: Language, Fat, and Stigma. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-021-09742-5 (2021)
Wutich, A., Beresford, M., C.L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis, S. Trainer, J. Hardin. Metatheme analysis: A qualitative method for cross-cultural research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. (2021)
Ruth, A., A. Brewis & C.L. SturtzSreetharan. Effectiveness of Social Science Research Opportunities: A Study of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). Teaching in Higher Education. (2021)
Mitchell*, C., E. Ore, A. Wutich, C. L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis, & O. Davis. Sister-girl talk: A community-based method for group interviewing & analysis. Field Methods 34(2). 2022.
SturtzSreetharan, C.L. ‘My body doesn’t hinder me, so I’m satisfied’: Enacting a Japanese life through lingual life histories. Journal of Anthropological Research. (2021)
King*, S., Y. Ren*, K. Idemaru, & C.L. SturtzSreetharan.Sounding like a father: The influence of regional dialect on perceptions of masculinity and fatherhood. Language in Society. (2021)
Scagliusi, F.B., M. D. Ulian, B. Gualano, O. J. Roble, U. Fernandez, P. de Morais Sato, C. L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis, A. Wutich. “Before I saw a gas canister, now I see a person”: Post-intervention qualitative differences in body acceptance and response to weight stigma in everyday lives among Brazilian ‘gorda’ women living with obesity. Human Organization, 79(3): 176-191. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-79.3.176 (2020)
Ruth, A., C.L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis, A. Wutich. Structural Competency of Pre-Health Students: Can a Single Course Lead to Meaningful Change? Medical Science Educator. 10.1007/s40670-019-00909-9 (2020)
Trainer, S., J. Hardin, C.L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis. Worry-nostalgia: Anxieties around the felt fading of local cuisines and foodways. Gastronomica 20(2). (2020)
SturtzSreetharan, C.L. and J. Shibamoto-Smith. Fathers of Massan: What an NHK asadora tells us about Japanese Fatherhood. Japanese Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2020.1735322 (2020)
SturtzSreetharan, C.L. Citizen Sociolinguistics: A data collection approach for hard-to-capture naturally-occurring language data. Field Methods 32(3). (2020)
Swami, V., U. Tran, D. Barron, . . . C.L. SturtzSreetharan, et al. The breast size satisfaction survey (BSSS): Breast size dissatisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes in women from 40 nations. Body Image 32: 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.01.006 (2020)
Ruth, A., C.L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Brewis, A. Wutich. Structural Competency of Pre-Health Students: Can a Single Course Lead to Meaningful Change? Medical Science Educator, (), 1-7. 10.1007/s40670-019-00909-9 (2020)
Agostini, G., C. L. SturtzSreetharan, A. Wutich, D. Williams, A. Brewis. Citizen Sociolinguistics: A new method to understand fat talk. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0217618. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217618 (2019)
SturtzSreetharan, C.L., G. Agostini, A. Wutich, A. A. Brewis, C. Mitchell*, O. Rines*, B. Romanello*. I need to lose some weight”: Masculinity and body image as negotiated through fat talk. Psychology of Men and Masculinitites. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000219 (2019)
SturtzSreetharan, CL. With G. Agostini, A.A. Brewis, A. Wutich. Fat talk: A citizen sociolinguistic approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics 23(3):263-283. DOI:10.1111/josl.12342. (2019)
SturtzSreetharan, CL and A.A. Brewis. Rice, men, and other everyday anxieties: Navigating obesogenic urban food environments in Osaka, Japan. In Vojnovic, I., A. Pearson, A. Gershim, G. Deverteuil, and A. Allen (eds), Handbook of Global Urban Health, pp. 545-564. Routledge. (2019)
SturtzSreetharan, CL. With S Trainer, A. Wutich, and AA Brewis. Moral Biocitizenship: Discursively managing food and the body after Bariatric Surgery. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 28(2): 221-240. (2018)
SturtzSreetharan, CL. With SY Han and AA Brewis. Employment and weight status: The extreme case of body concern in South Korea. Economics and Human Biology 29:115-121. (2018)
SturtzSreetharan, CL. With AA Brewis, A Wutich. Obesity Stigma as a Global Health Challenge. Globalization and Health 14:20. (2018)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Language and masculinity: The role of Osaka dialect in contemporary ideals of fatherhood. Gender and Language 11(4): 552-574. (2017)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Academy of Devotion: Performing status, hierarchy, and masculinity on reality TV, Gender and Language 11(2): 176 - 203. (2017)
SturtzSreetharan, CL. With AA Brewis, SY Han. Weight, gender, and depression in South Korea. American Journal of Human Biology. DOI:10.1002/ajhb.22972. (2017)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Resignifying the Japanese father: Mediatization, commodification, and dialect. Language and Communication. DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2016.09.003. (2017)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Na(a)n ya nen! Making Masculinity and Making Curry in Kansai. Journal of Japanese Language and Literature 49(2): 429-452. (2015)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. With Janet S. Shibamoto Smith and Debra J Occhi. Finding Mr. Right: New looks at gendered modernity in Japanese Televised Romances. Published as part of the Special Issue: Language in Public Spaces in Japan Journal of Japanese Studies 30(3): 409-17 (2010)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. "Ore" and "Omae": Japanese men's use of first- and second-person pronounsPragmatics 19(2): 253-278. (2009)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Osaka Aunties: Negotiating Honorific Language, Gender, and Regionality. In Brown, Amy & Josh Iorio (eds.) Proceedings of SALSA XVI: 2008 Texas Linguistic Forum 52: 163 – 173. (2008)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. I read the Nikkei, too: Crafting positions of authority and masculinity in Japanese Conversations, the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 16(2): 173 – 193. (2006)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Gentlemanly Gender? Japanese Men’s Politeness in Casual Conversations, Journal of Sociolinguistics: 10(1): 70-92. (2006)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Japanese Men’s Linguistic Stereotypes and Realities: Conversations from the Kansai and Kanto regions. In Okamoto, Shigeko and (Shibamoto)Smith, Janet. (eds.) Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, Oxford University Press: 275 – 289. (2004)
SturtzSreetharan, Cindi. Students, Sarariiman (pl.), and Seniors: Japanese men’s use of “manly” speech register. Language in Society 33: 81-107. (2004)
Sturtz(Sreetharan), Cindi. “Uwaki tte iu no wa attemo ii n janai ka?”: Japanese men’s conversations up-close an personal. (“It’s alright to have a mistress/affair, isn’t it?”), Japanese Studies 22(1): 49-63. (2002)
*denotes graduate student co-author
Abe Fellow: 2020-2023 (extended due to COVID-19)
Project: Obesity anxieties: Comparing the lived experience of weight-related policy for Japanese and US men
Obesity rates are on the rise globally. Sentiment around obesity is shifting from positive associations of health and wealth to negative associations of laziness and a lack of self-control. Policies meant to address obesity are designed and developed by public health experts who may not recognize the effect the policies have on the emotional well-being of individual laypeople including depression and social exclusion. At the same time, social messages address issues of health and size. While public health policies address overweight and obesity, social messaging around health tends to focus on a thin ideal. The ways in which Japan and the US approach public health policies around obesity present a valuable opportunity to ask: How do explicit health policies, in comparison to implicit policies contribute to fat shaming and fat stigma? Using qualitative ethnographic methods, this research will characterize the lived experience of fat in Japan versus the US with specific focus on Japanese and US men. Does the Japanese annual health (metabo) exam contribute to worsening fat stigma because it is mandatory (explicit health policy) or do social messages from health agencies and peers (implicit health policy) have a similar effect?
Despite long-standing efforts at reducing the rates of obesity in Japan and the US, both countries continue to see increases, especially among men (30.7% in Japan and 73.7% in the US). Experts may perceive a lack of exercise and poor diet to be the main cause of these increasing rates, while laypeople may explain their increasing waistline through narratives of a lack of discipline or stress. Increasingly, scholars are investigating the role of emotional health and the role it plays in weight, finding that shame and stigma around weight can have the opposite effects on people trying to reduce or maintain their weight. That is, fat shame and stigma can lead to weight gains, rather than reductions.
This research moves beyond thinking about diet and exercise and instead focuses on the ways that explicit and implicit health policies may contribute to weight gain by encouraging and enforcing strict body vigilance which can be internalized as anti-fat sentiment or fat stigma which can also put people at risk for social exclusion. Japanese and US men are understudied in qualitative research on topics of weight and stigma.
Ethnographic methods and qualitative analyses have been widely used in research to study lived experiences of highly personal and often sensitive topics. Participant observation combined with semi-structured interviews can elucidate how people characterize and organize their experiences of fat, health policy, and stigma. The semi-structured interview will probe along five domains including (1) food and eating; (2) body ideals, body capital, and bodies in society; (3) disease and health of large bodies; (4) health policy; and (5) body concerns and stigma. Narrative and thematic analyses will identify the experiences and sentiment which are particular and shared within and across sites. We will gain fundamental understandings into the ways that explicit and implicit health policies impact men’s lives in Japan and the US.
Project: Trans Resilience & Health in Sociopolitical Contexts
To learn about this project, check out this infographic.
You can watch our recent conference presentation Resilience and health amidst COVID-19: Experiences of trans and gender diverse people.
Courses
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 484 | Internship |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 484 | Internship |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
2023 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 484 | Internship |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 484 | Internship |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2022 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 484 | Internship |
| ASB 484 | Internship |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
2021 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 591 | Seminar |
| ASB 584 | Internship |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 584 | Internship |
2020 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 592 | Research |
2020 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
2020 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 591 | Seminar |
| ASB 584 | Internship |
2019 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
2019 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 380 | Language, Culture & Gender |
2018 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 592 | Research |
Sixth Cohort of the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future, Member 2022 - 2024, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation
American Anthropological Association (AAA) International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Kobe College Corporation Japan Education Exchange, Graduate Fellowship Program Chair (2012 - Present)
Community Publications
On the Quad College: How to Arrive, Survive, and Thrive in College with Heidi van Beek. Available on Amazon Kindle. Published in 2014, On the Quad: How To Arrive, Survive and Thrive at College is a no-nonsense approach to making good decisions and achieving real success in your college career. With just a little help, you can make your college experience fun, exciting and successful. You’ll gain the confidence to ask the right questions and get the right answers from day-one of your college search, right through the first semesters of your new college life.
Check out our blog at: www.onthequadcollege.com
Media:
Study: Life experiences as valuable as training when collecting some scientific data, Interview, ASU News, Feb 14, 2022.
Framing and shaming body size in Japan with Claire Maree, Ear to Asia podcast, August 23, 2021.
People around the world agree: Too busy to lose the weight Interview, ASU Now, July 9, 2021.
‘Sharking’ and ‘Zoom Bombing’: Which new words will survive the pandemic? Interview, 91.5 KJZZ ‘The Show’ April 23, 2021
‘Mandemic’: Inventing new words to capture the moment Interview with AZ NPR Affiliate, KJZZ ‘The Show’, April 14, 2020
ASU research on talking about our bodies Interview, Arizona PBS, Arizona Horizon, April 25, 2019
Chewing the fat: Understanding how we talk about our bodies Interview, ASU Now, April 22, 2019
Language Study Explores What Society Values - And Doesn't - In Each Gender Interview with AZ NPR Affiliate, KJZZ, August 21, 2018.
How Pivotal Moments Change Our Language, Culture Interview with Dr. Neal Lester for AZ NPR Affiliate, KJZZ, February 8, 2018.
Generational Shift, Reflections Of Technologies Change How We Use Words Interview with AZ NPR Affiliate, KJZZ, September 25, 2017.
Interdisciplinary Committee on Linguistics (ICOL): a group of people at ASU studying language