Hi!
I'm wondering if anyone who has food allergies, or has children with food allergies, in the Milton Keynes or Newport Pagnell area would be interested in meeting up. I'm doing research on experiences of food allergies in the UK and Japan, focusing on how people in different cultural contexts manage their allergies.
In particular the kinds of things I want to learn more about are:
- Physical/emotional experiences of food allergies.
- Affects (if any) on social life and relationships.
- Experiences and strategies for dealing with allergies in social settings (e.g. eating out, shopping, traveling, socialising etc).
- Experiences (if any) with the medical establishment (e.g. allergy testing, diagnosis, medication, doctor-patient interaction, and information on allergies).
- Experiences of food allergies as a parent, friend, or partner.
This is just a general outline of what I'm looking at in the research generally, but conversations are not restricted to these topics if they're not relevant to your experience.
I am currently based in Japan at Hokkaido University (and am personally allergic to fish and nuts - which makes Japan an interesting place to live), but will be in the Milton Keynes area between August 30th to September 5th 2015. If you are interested in talking with me about your experiences I'd love to hear from you. If you're interested to participate but are not available during those dates we could also meet on Skype.
Thank you for reading this message! For more information about me please see my website: emma-e-cook.net/
Best regards,
Emma Cook
Associate Professor
Hokkaido University