February 3, 2017
This spring the Sociology Department hosted Dr. Gilbert Gee, Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA, as our colloquium speaker.
At his talk, Dr. Gee shared findings from his current research on racism and health inequalities over the life course. He began by explaining that biological notions of race are inaccurate, despite the harmful attempts of the medical field to link adverse health outcomes to biological and genetic factors. For example, he argued that if health disparities were caused by genetics, then African women would have the same health as Africans Americans (which goes unsupported in research). Thus, he encouraged social science researchers to look for other explanations of health disparities, such as racism. Moreover, Dr. Gee explained how multiple forms of racism – individual (self-perceived) or institutional (segregation and redlining) – is associated with poor health status among members of a racial/ethnic groups. Dr. Gee went on to discuss how racism shapes health trajectories starting at birth that persist over the life course. For instance, he overviewed one study that showed that black women report race-based discrimination more than their white counterparts, and that their perceived experiences of racial discrimination grows into middle age.
The talk was well-attended by undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, which made for a vibrant question and answer session. Dr. Gee was also able to meet with students and faculty throughout the day. We were glad for the opportunity to learn from him and look forward to continuing collaborations with those at other UC campuses.
