Juliana McDonald

Research Interests:
Transportation
Environmental Justice
ageism
successful aging
France
North Africa/Morocco
Education

Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2000

Research

I received the Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 2000.  As a graduate student, I was Research Assistant with the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging on a three year ethnographic research project of family decision making in nursing homes in Kentucky.  While working on the project, I researched social networks of nursing home residents for an M.A. thesis.  I conducted research in Morocco in North Africa on aging in rural and urban areas.  From 1996 to 2000, I worked at Wake Forest University School of Medicine/Section on Epidemiology, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I lived in a large agricultural county where I conducted ethnographic research with European-American, African-American, and (Lumbee) Native American elders on nutrition and health practices.  During this time, I conducted my dissertation research on aging and agricultural practices of farmers and became interested in tobacco production.  I joined the faculty of the UK Department of Anthropology in 2005.  Since 2006, I have worked with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, the Kentucky Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration on environmental justice mitigation for an historical neighorhood impacted by the Newtown Pike Extension, a major road project in Lexington.  I completed a social needs assessment in 2006 and am currently conducting an evaluation of the overall project.  I currently serve on the Board of Directors of the Lexington Community Land Trust which was formed as part of the mitigation to protect the neighborhood and build affordable housing for past and future residents.    

Undergraduate Supervisory Activity:

  • Internships
  • Independent Studies

Courses Regularly Taught:

  • ANT101:  Introduction to Anthropology
  • ANT160:  Cultural Diversity in the Modern World-Global Dynamics
  • ANT220:  Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
  • ANT302:  Ethnographic Methods
  • ANT331:  North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
  • ANT335:  Religion in Everyday Life
  • ANT337:  Global Aging
  • ANT525:  Applied Anthropology Seminar
Selected Publications:

  • 2022  Clay-Young, P., McDonald, J., Tucker, S., Whitworth, D., and Dupont, B.  “Doing the Right Thing:  Building a Road and Preserving a Community – The Newtown Pike Extension Project,” Federal Highway Administration, Public Roads Spring 2022, p. 16 – 25.  https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/public-roads-magazine-spring-2022

  • 2020  McDonald, J.  “Valuable Voices:  Teaching with the Society for Applied Anthropology Oral History Project,” Practicing Anthropology Vol 42(3):48-51.

  • 2020  McDonald, J.  “Family and Household, Migration, and Conflict Management in Central America, the Caribbean, and the US Southwest: A SfAA Oral History Interview with Nancie Loudon Gonzalez,” SfAA Newsletter 30:1 (February).

  • 2020  McDonald, J.  Oral History Interview with Gwynn Henderson, SfAA Oral History Project, UK Nunn Center for Oral History, Online at:  https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7152kwj7vnt

  • 2019  McDonald, J.  Oral History Interview with Jim Stansbury.  SfAA Oral History Project, UK Nunn Center for Oral History, Online at:  https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt71m7s0wlb7w

  • 2009  McDonald, J.  Bulldozers, Land and the Bottom: Environmental Justice and a Rapid Assessment Process.  Practicing Anthropology 31(1):4-8.   

  • 2006  McDonald, J.  Social Needs Assessment: Davis Bottom, Lexington, KY, Newtown Pike Extension and Southend Park Urban Village Report to Lexington Fayette County Government, KY Transportation Cabinet.