"Longing for Recognition" -- A new and different book on dietetics
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 This morning while skimming "Gerry's List", I read about a new book on dietetic education and practice -- I admit the fascinating title made me look closely:
Longing for Recognition
The joys, complexities, and contradictions of practicing dietetics
by Jacqueline Rochelle Gingras, PhD, RD
Published by Raw Nerve Books, York, UK, 1st February 2009,
ISBN 978-0955358654
$25 CAD, $22 USD
Longing for Recognition offers a radical new way of understanding nutritional health practices. In contemporary food culture, the work of dietitians has accrued new and urgent meaning, and Longing for Recognition is addressed to that group of practitioners. The author, herself a dietitian, crafts an autoethnographic fiction that presents a critical and thought-provoking argument for a more self-reflexive, relational, and embodied profession. Her compelling narrative draws the reader into its timely call for rethinking what counts as knowledge in dietetic education. Longing for Recognition will be invaluable for dietitians and other health care professionals who wish to enhance their practice as one that considers first and foremost what it means to be human.
Reviewers' Comments
Longing for Recognition is a landmark nutritional and educational text and a whole new way of mapping the terrain. The book is an urgent, eloquent and compelling journey towards tomorrow's dietetics, and Gingras draws us out from 'safe places' to hold vulnerability up to the light. Engagingly narrated through both a personal and a conceptual lens, her book is a telling and necessary exposition of her discoveries. Lucy Aphramor, RD, Health Researcher, Coventry University, UK
Professionals too rarely address the limits of their training or the strong emotions produced by the dilemmas they face in their work. This richly layered story - compelling in its attention to real people with complex lives at work and at home - treats nutrition educators as accomplished but also fully human practitioners, who struggle to reconcile the realities of everyday practice with their desires to make a better world, for themselves and others. Marjorie DeVault, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University, USA
About the author
Jacqueline Gingras, PhD, RD is an Assistant Professor at Ryerson University's School of Nutrition, Toronto, ON. She conducts research into dietetic education and practice. Previous work has appeared in publications as diverse as Feminist Media Studies; Food, Culture & Society; and Educational Insights.
I very much like the book's subtitle: it aptly describes my (and maybe your) experiences & emotions when getting and giving nutrition knowledge in a "real-world" setting. Sometimes the process and interactions are joyful: more often, they are complex, and contradictory, with elements of controversy & uncertainty added to the mix. I think Dr. Gingras is correct: a reflective, fully human, honest orientation will enhance our practice & profession.
Congratulations, Dr. Gingras, on this thoughtful book and thank you for it.