Batnitzky Reports on Panel Participation and Current Research

Batnitzky Reports on Panel Participation and Current Research

Adina Batnitzky, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, joined a panel of other USD faculty and staff on April 4, 2013, to speak about their experiences in the Peace Corps; she volunteered her services in Morocco, North Africa.

Dr. Batnitzky has also been conducting research by working with women from East Africa who have relocated in the San Diego area. Batnitzky, along with collaborative researcher Dr. Theresa Sinicrope Talley (Coastal Specialist with the California Sea Grant Extension Program based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography), kicked-off USD's newest Colloquium series on interdisciplinary research on April 9th, 2013. Sponsored by USD's Center for Educational Excellence and the Office of Special Programs, Batnitzky and Talley spoke on “Healthy City-Healthy Ocean" regarding testing the feasibility of urban coastal direct seafood markets. Learn more by clicking here .

These same co-researchers recently did a focus group on nutrition patterns among East African women here in San Diego, finding a diet heavy in halal meat and lacking in fresh fish and seafood, which are plentiful back home but difficult to find in halal stores here. These findings were featured in articles by NY Times Reporter, Patricia Leigh Brown. To read the articles, visit Huffington Post,  the San Diego Union Tribune , and the California Watch.

And the best news yet: Batnitzky and Talley have just been awarded a grant from Collaborative Fisheries Research West to study whether a fishermen’s market—a sort of farmers market for seafood—could make it as a viable business in San Diego. The study, which begins in May, will begin by examining the demand for local fish and shellfish among “locovores” already on board with the slow-foods movement, and the city’s East African community, which is interested in reconnecting with its traditional, healthy, halal dietary habits. To learn more, click here .