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

Intentions, Consequences, Collaboration

The advance team arrived at Dulles at 3:30 Thursday morning (March 4) -- remarkably alert and ready for the trek.   Seventeen hours later, we arrived in

SOMOS 2010: 10 days and counting

It's a familiar sight:  6:30 am, we're ready to roll (well, mostly -- note the far right corner), but the bus has not yet

It’s Official: SHC is MANOS

  Some of our friends in Cuje, Nicaragua have told us that "SHC" is awkward to say in Spanish.  Perhaps as important, student members of

Community Health and Community Capacity Building: Moving on

First, my apologies for the long hiatus.  Much has happened since the last post, and I'm eager to report on developments in the Dominican

From the students’ perspectives

On the last day in Cuje, I asked the students to write about their experiences from the week just finished.  They did, and the

Institute for Human Promotion

March 12, 2009. The lunch menu was reduced by half today. Until now, we could choose between PBJ and tuna, with a side of

Juan

A face that alternately implores and defends. Scraped elbows and a lightened patch of skin on his left cheek, perhaps only a rash, but maybe something

Las Minas/Totagalpa

Las Minas/Totagalpa.  March 10, 2009.  Soyoung Hwang ('11, 1st year; aka !Zoing! - which I think means "always healthy" or "never sick" in Korean,

Ocatal, Nicaragua

Ocatal, Nicaragua.  9:50 pm, 8 March, 2009. We're back. We have rejoined our friend, Roger Martinez, MD. He travelled with us from Managua and