Routledge Barrio Professors: Tales of Naturalistic Research

Prize-winning sociologist Lloyd H. Rogler, a founder of cultural psychiatry, gives us an intimately revealing, brilliantly narrated account of fieldwork from San Juan, Puerto Rico to inner-city New Haven. Using his decades of field experience and creative fiction he explores the daily reality of his "informants"―the Barrio Professors―and uncovers the clash between scientific models and local experience over schizophrenia, the political workings of community, and the power of serendipity. Rogler's multi-layered exploration of the relationship between researcher and community, as well as his candid assessment of field strategies, make the book useful also for methods courses. Barrio Professors is engrossing enough for the general public and an excellent text for courses in ethnic studies, sociology, qualitative methods, psychiatry, public health, anthropology, and social work. Review "Barrio Professors would fit nicely as a supplementary text and springboard to class discussion in both undergraduate and graduate courses. A brisk and engaging read, Barrio Professors gives three-dimensional life to important issues in a nonacademic life to important issues in a nonacademic literary format...the questions with which Rogler wrestled then, and upon which he reflects in this volume, are hardy perennials meriting our continuing consideration. For both seasoned researchers and newcomers to the field, there is much to value and savor here." - David Glenwick, Fordham University for The Community Psychologist "Rogler's tales recreate his own querencia: they return to the place that gives him strength, security, to a metaphoric home, to a desired place of reflection. Also, these re-storyed narratives humanize an academic endeavor and provide students, researchers, academics, and the general public with an invaluable gaze into the power of the sociological imagination within an ethnocultural context. But they also provide an opportunity to move fast forward from a critique of positivist social science that traverses through the strengths and limitations of naturalistic research and is re-situated in the confluences of critical theoretical perspectives." -Iris Zavala Martinez, The City University of New York, Center for Puerto Rican Studies "Written as a novel, the book is very enjoyable to read, especially for those experienced in ethnographic fieldwork. Rogler shares humorous accounts of gastrointestinal ailments, existential questioning, and social faux pas while conducting fieldwork, allowing for one's own reminiscence of similar incidents. The book would be a welcome addition to qualitative methodology courses in the social sciences, as it puts a ''human face'' on what may otherwise seem like rather dry concepts." -Karine Vanthuyne, Transcultural Psychiatry "These enchanting tales of colorful and gritty characters in the barrios of Puerto Rico and New Haven are an engrossing read. Lloyd Rogler is a distinguished, prize-winning sociologist, himself half Puerto Rican and half American, whose research has explored the cultural connections and disconnections that mark Anglo-Latin encounters and the strategies through which the poor and the migrant triumph over adversity. Reading the book is like sitting in a bar next to the author, who is saying, 'This is what it was really like...'" --Gilbert W. Merkx, Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke University "An inspiring life journey, described with tender elegance, compassion, humor and wisdom, Barrio Professors is Lloyd Rogler's compelling message of humanism, culture and science embraced by nostalgia, courage and authenticity. The parade of unforgettable characters and places like San Juan, New Haven and Iowa City are, in this book, memorable stations of an eternal querencia, that of a world we know imperfect, but always dream better." --Renato D. Alarcon, Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Director, Mood Disorders Unit, Mayo Psyc