BIOGRAPHY

Ph.D. (2000) Francophone Studies, UL Lafayette

M.A. (1975) Linguistics/French, the Ohio State University

B.A. (1969) Linguistics/French, the Ohio State University

Deborah J. Clifton currently serves as the Curator of Collections for the Lafayette Natural History Museum and Planetarium. She is also a research associate at the Center for Cultural and Eco-Tourism and a member of the adjunct faculty of the Department of Modern Languages, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She earned her Ph.D. in Francophone Studies from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2000, specializing in Linguistics, Folklore, and Health Systems of Francophone Countries. Her doctoral dissertation, N’avait Cauchemar té gain nom: Stress Transformers and Diabetes among North Americans of Native and French Descent, was directed by Dr. Dominique Ryon (Ph.D. Linguistic Anthropology, University of Montreal, 1993). Dr. Clifton holds a Master’s degree in Linguistics and French from the Ohio State University and has studied at the University of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. She has done post-doctoral work at Louisiana State University School of Library and Information science, specializing in Health Sciences Information and Archival Preservation. In addition to her work at the Lafayette Natural History Museum/Planetarium and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she has taught at Louisiana State University, the Ohio State University, the University of Quebec at Montreal, and has recently returned from doing a stage at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada. In addition, Clifton is the author of A cette heure, la louve, a collection of poems and stories dealing with the symbolic culture of Francophone Louisiana. This book was nominated in 2001 for the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar; an international literary prize awarded every other year to a Francophone writer living in the United States. Clifton is a past recipient of the Prix du Bayou, awarded by Action Cadienne and the Prix de Louisiane, awarded by CODOFIL. Her writing, both literary and technical, has appeared in various publications, most recently in Working the Field: Accounts from French Louisiana (Henry and LeMenestrel, eds. Praeger, 2003) and in the journal, Economic Botany (57,2. 2003). Her research focuses on the areas of symbolic representation systems and health communication; ethnohistorical epidemiology; the role of information access in healing; cultural dimensions of the therapeutic relationship; health issues affecting cultural resource workers; and preservation of scientific and biomedical research collections. She serves as advisor to several organizations on questions concerning healthcare and human rights, and works actively to promote preservation and conservation of cultural resources in health and humanitarian crises. Her own research interests focus on Type II Diabetes in francophone communities and on reconstructing the history of epidemic disease in colonial Louisiana. Those interested in health issues in Francophone communities and diabetes please contact Dr. Clifton as the email address provided above.

An important theme in her work is the concept of social homeostasis, developed by Anthony F.C. Wallace, and the role of traditional cultural practices in helping communities to maintain a balanced relationship with the natural environment.