Ethnic Studies Symposium Overview

How do systems of oppression make people sick? Who has access to health care, and whose well-being is prioritized through public health policies? Though science and medicine are often considered neutral and objective, how have culturally created classifications of race shaped biomedical research and clinical practices? How, in turn, does medical science perpetuate racial ideologies? 

Critical questions like these are at the center of the 15th Annual Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies, which will explore the racialized dimensions of health and medicine in institutions, communities, and individual experiences. We will examine topics such as genetics, mental health, reproductive justice, environmental racism, and disparities in diagnosis and treatment, as well as experiences of people of color who are medical and health practitioners. This symposium aims to expose structural inequalities and painful histories while also underscoring the transformative ways in which communities of color have developed strategies of healing justice as a form of resistance.