David Aday

David Aday
  • Professor, Sociology and Community Studies
  • Archived Blogger

About David Aday

Professor of Sociology and Community Studies
Reves Fellow for International Service Learning, 2008-2010
Academic Director of Students for Medical Outreach and Sustainability (SOMOS, Paraiso, Dominican Republic) and Medical Aid Nicaragua: Outreach Scholarship (MANOS) .
B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Sociology

My teaching and research interests focused on community, the ways in which people live and work together to solve collective problems. This interest emerged over a career of interests in crime, regulatory arrangements and theory, and a deep distrust of hierarchical and coercive strategies of “helping” and “managing” in human affairs. My work in the Dominican Republic and in Nicaragua represented a shift from issues of security and social control to those of health and well-being. I see the two as inherently related and believe that effective communities must find ways to solve these and other persistent and thorny problems. Students taught me much over the years — not the least, the need to continue to learn and to press forward to create and use knowledge. Students are responsible directly for my work in community health and for my involvement in the two most exciting projects (SOMOS and SHC) of my now lengthy career.

Posts by David Aday

Persistence and Partnering. 2/27/14

The MANOS advance team (Johnathan Maza ’15; 5th project trip); Stephanie Wraith ’15, fourth project trip; Sarah Martin ’17, 1st project trip; and me,

B-team arrives; clinics underway

B-team arrived on schedule, and as predicted, silliness ensued. It is a measure of their engagement that the later arrivers could not wait for

Senior Week

It’s 8:30 pm. The advance team has been busy since eight this morning, when we left the hostel. Chrissy Sherman has arranged the agenda,

Another newbie meets Cuje

Introducing a new team member to the region and community is always interesting. It is one thing to communicate the approach, the core concepts

SOMOS/DASV 13: The Spirit is Willing

I wish I could bottle it – that synergy that comes from hard work, dedication, diverse training and skills; that instantiation of hope that is

Progress

It may be that blogs have gone the way of postcards. Again, I have been a poor correspondent and note that I wrote last

Unfolding a five-year plan

There have been times when we worried that the individual level needs are too urgent, that our methodical efforts to identify promising community level

The straw is too long

Notes from March 6, 2012 Michael Cammarata ’12 (ourth project trip) is this year’s clinic coordinator and he has organized meds, worked with our

The axe is too dull

Still catching up.  The following is taken from field notes on March 5, 2012. There is so much water in the rainy season.  Roads