Lecture Title: Are You Sure You Want Health Equity?

Presented by: Dr. Ugo Edu, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at UCLA

Abstract:

This talk draws on different moments, fictitious and non-fictitious, to explore our commitments to the anti-racist work needed to move towards health equity. It asks for an interrogation of what is meant by “health” and how that definition or those definitions inform/s what can be envisioned as health equity. By asking whether we are sure we want health equity is to invite reflection on our commitments and willingness to sacrifice over performative gestures and statements that often contradict stated goals.

Biography:

Ugo F. Edu is a medical anthropologist working at the intersection of medical anthropology, public health, black feminism, and science, technology, and society studies (STS). Using interdisciplinary approaches, her scholarship focuses on reproductive and sexual health, gender, race, aesthetics, body knowledge, and body modifications. Her book project: The "Family Planned": Racial Aesthetics, Sterilization, and Reproductive Fugitivity in Brazil, traces the influence of an economy of race, aesthetics, and sexuality on reproductive and sterilization practices of women in Brazil. She is working on a play, Securing Ties, which draws heavily on her book project as a means for critical public engagement and an incorporation of the arts in her scholarship. She is an Assistant Professor in the African American Studies Department at UCLA.

About Dr. Sam Dubal

Sam Dubal joined the UW Department of Anthropology faculty in September 2020, and his future at the University was full of promise. He came to the UW with an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, a PhD in medical anthropology from UC-Berkeley and UW-San Francisco, and an MD from Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately, Sam went missing on Mt. Rainier in October 2020 despite an extensive search of the mountain. 

A sociocultural anthropologist with a focus in medical anthropology, Dubal had hoped to encourage the medical community to seek a more holistic understanding of the causes of various health issues, including the systemic racism that can lead to chronic health problems or even fatal gunshot wounds. He believed that the medical community must confront the bigger picture to adequately treat patients. Dubal is the author of Against Humanity: Lessons from the Lord’s Resistance Army, published in 2018 by Oakland: University of California Press. 

The Racial Justice in Medical Anthropology and Global Health Lecture Series has been developed to honor Sam Dubal’s vision for racial justice in medicine. Building on his incredible spirit and fierce intellect, the Department of Anthropology hopes students, community members, and fellow scholars will be inspired to become activist scholars like Dubal, directly addressing racism and other inequities that fuel health disparities.