In session 2, Dr Jenny Douglas of the Open University speaks on “The struggle for reproductive justice: The history and politics of black women’s reproductive health in the UK”. The chair is Professor Simon Leedham.
In the first part of Session 1, we begin to explore the unequal impact of COVID-19 on local and global populations. The session chair is CPM Junior Research Fellow Nicky Whiffin. Kevin Fenton – COVID-19, Health inequalities and recovery in London. Kevin has worked in a variety of public health roles across government and academia in the UK and internationally. He became London’s PHE Regional Director of Public Health and NHS in April 2020. He is the statutory public health advisor to the Mayor of London. He provides leadership across London for health, prevention of ill health, health protection and reduction of health inequalities. In November of 2020, Kevin was named by Powerlist as the second most influential black person in Britain for his work leading the fight against coronavirus and his public health leadership on tackling inequalities. In Spring 2020, he oversaw the national PHE review of disparities in risks and outcomes of COVID-19 which included an epidemiological investigation, rapid review of the published literature, and an extensive stakeholder engagement with BAME communities, professionals, faith and system leaders. The review led to seven key recommendations which have shaped a more equitable COVID-19 pandemic response, nationally and locally.
In this third session of four, we explore equality of representation in genetic research with four leading scholars in this field, chaired by the CPM’s Junior Research Fellow Jason Torres. Eimear Kenny: Population genetics in an era of genomic health. Alicia Martin: The critical importance of diversity in genetic studies. Aimé Lumaka: Improving healthcare for rare diseases in the world by addressing data disparity in Africa. Keolu Fox: Missing sequences: Why just increasing diversity in genome science is not enough.
The chair of this session is Jenny Douglas, Open University. Dorothy Roberts is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, US, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School, where she is the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights. She is also the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society. An internationally recognized scholar, public intellectual, and social justice advocate, she has written and lectured extensively on race, gender, and class inequities in U.S. institutions and has been a leader in transforming public thinking and policy on reproductive freedom, child welfare, and biopolitics. She is the author of Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Pantheon, 1997/Vintage, 2017), Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2001), and Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century (The New Press, 2011), as well as co editor of six books. She has also published more than 100 articles and essays in books and scholarly journals. Her research has been supported by fellowships from American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Brocher Foundation, Harvard University Program in Ethics and the Professions, Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Northwestern Institute for Policy Research, and the Fulbright Program. She has served on the boards of directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform and on the advisory boards of the Center for Genetics and Society, Generations Ahead, and Still She Rises. Recent recognitions of her work include 2019 election as a College of Physicians of Philadelphia Fellow, 2017 election to the National Academy of Medicine, 2016 Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award, 2015 American Psychiatric Association Solomon Carter Fuller Award, and 2011 election as a Hastings Center Fellow. Her TEDTalk, “The Problem with Race-Based Medicine,” has more than one million views.
In the second part of Session 1, we begin to explore the unequal impact of COVID-19 on local and global populations. The session chair is CPM Junior Research Fellow Nicky Whiffin. Vittal Katikireddi: Ethnic inequalities in the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: What do we know so far? Clare Bambra: Unequal Pandemic: COVID-19 and health inequalities. Jeremy Farrar: Covid-19 and the future: Science, innovation and society.