Please join us for this Zoom guest lecture!

 Fikriyah Winata, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Geography and Geospatial Sciences, Mississippi State University presents: 

“The Rest Day Allows Us To Go”: Understanding Im(mobility) Experiences, Health, and Wellbeing among Female Domestic Workers

Description:

In recent decades, transnational migration of low-educated women from low-income countries working as domestic workers increased significantly. In most Asian countries, female domestic workers (FDWs) live with their employers, limiting their social interactions. Their everyday mobility and activities are dictated by their employers through demanding work tasks. Previous studies reported that FDWs experienced long work hours, poor living and working conditions, and unrealistic expectations that lead to poor physical and mental health outcomes. My research has focused on Indonesian FDWs who work in Hong Kong, as Hong Kong is one the highest importers of Indonesian migrant workers. With the mandated rest day policy regulated by the Hong Kong government, Indonesian FDWs in Hong Kong have one rest day (day off) after seven days of working. The rest day allows FDWs to visit places and build social networks on their rest days. In this lecture, Dr. Winata will demonstrate how GIS, spatial analysis, statistical modeling, and mixed methods approach help us to understand space-time constraints and (im)mobility experienced by marginalized women living in a foreign country. In addition, with the therapeutic landscape and network framework in health geography, Dr. Winata will articulate how the rest day has positively affected FDWs’ health and wellbeing. 

About Dr. Winata:

Dr. Fikriyah Winata holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Geospatial Sciences at the Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University. Her research encompasses human geography and geospatial sciences. Broadly, her research seeks to understand how humans’ interactions with places affect their health and wellbeing, especially among marginalized communities. Dr. Winata uses GIS, spatial and statistical analyses, and mixed-methods approaches to investigate access to health care, healthy food stores, and health-promoting places and social networks in the United States, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. In addition, she has investigated the mobility patterns and access to therapeutic landscapes and networks among Indonesian female domestic workers in Hong Kong who live within space and time constraints due to their employment. Dr. Winata’s research contributes to health and wellbeing geographies, immigrant health, feminist geography, and geospatial sciences. In addition to research, for the past ten years, Dr. Winata has taught various courses of GIS for undergraduate and undergrads, the Digital Earth, Immigrant Health, Urban Geography, and Cities of the World. Dr, Winata was recognized multiple times with “Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students.”