Research Areas:
Page Description:
This page describes areas where I am currently active in research or have recently contributed to projects. Go to my research publications. I prefer to work with many co-authors on projects to get a number of perspectives, and I am open to connecting about potential collaborations.
Structural Ableism in Public Health and Healthcare:
My research seek to examine structural ableism in public health and healthcare, quantify its health effects, and build support for changes to policy, health systems, health care practices, and institutions to intervene to address structural ableism. This research seeks to shift the focus away from disability as the predominant cause of health disparities for and among disabled people and consider ableism as a fundamental and modifiable determinant of inequities. Furthermore, it seeks to document to what extent disability-related discrimination and internalized ableism has resulted directly from structural ableism within public health and healthcare practices. I am particularly interested in inequitable outcomes and experiences for people receiving services for chronic pain, psychiatrized conditions, and addiction. Another interest of mine is how the death investigation system can conceal mortality inequities, including for disabled people, through structural bias. Finally, I seek to apply concepts from disability studies and disability justice scholarship to public health research, practice, and education in an attempt to “crip” public health and healthcare from disabled, neurodivergent, and mad perspectives.
Intersectional Health Equity
I also collaborate on projects exploring how structural determinants of health operate through policies, institutions, societal norms, and environments to produce inequitable health and health care outcomes for populations at the intersection of multiple systems of power and oppression such as racism, classism, ableism, sexism, and transphobia. A specific population of interest for me is transgender and gender diverse populations, for whom disability and neurodivergence are both notably more common and whom have been severely under-researched. I am interested in inter and intra-group differences and also sources and facilitators of resiliency, joy, and creativity.
Other Research Areas & Interests
Rural Health Equity
I collaborate on projects exploring rural health and social, contextual, and structural determinants of health that exist in rural areas especially within minoritized subpopulations.
Methodological Interests
Some of my current methodological interests include small area estimation methods, methods for causal inference, ableism in health metrics, and structural determinants measurement.
Community-Based Collaboration & Artists in Public Health
I have an on-going engagement and interest in learning about, participating in, and improving my own approaches to public health partnership with artists, community advocates, and community-based organizations. I believe that artists deserve a seat at the table in public health and healthcare policy-making and that involvement of artists in research and dissemination can challenge paradigms about what knowledge is and who it is intended to serve.
Research Approach
I am a disabled, mad, and neurodivergent person. My perspectives on ableism are informed by my experiences with physical disability (Long Covid and chronic pain), as a psychiatrized person (bipolar disorder and PTSD), and as an autistic person with ADHD (adult diagnosis ADHD and adult discovery autist). I approach my scholarship from a perspective of lived experience and attempt to ground my research in theory emerging from disability studies and disability justice scholarship and advocacy. Some concepts that guide my research are:
Disability is a construct that exists in relationship to ableism, and because of this, the biomedical of model of disability that views disability as impairment resulting from a health condition is deeply flawed. Furthermore, many disabled, deaf, neurodivergent, and mad people view their experiences in their bodies and minds as inherent to who they are and do not desire a “cure” but rather services that improve their quality of life. Additionally, there is a strong desire among most disabled people for a “cure” to society’s inaccessibility and the chronic stress that comes from navigating ableist systems. Go to related writings by Sara Goering, Robert Chapman and Monique Botha, and Essya M. Nabbali.
Structural ableism is deeply intertwined with other systems of oppression such as racism, classism, transphobia, colonialism, and capitalism. Because of this, issues of incarceration, police violence and militarization, and imperialism and genocide are inherently “disability issues”. Go to writing by Sins Invalid, Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, TL Lewis, and Alice Wong.
Most public health and health care professionals fundamentally misunderstand how disabled people experience their bodies and minds. The current health care system is neither “disability competent” nor “disability affirming”. Go to these studies on disability-related bias from health care and disability support professionals by Dr. Carli Friedman and collaborators. I believe interpersonal and internalized ableism are created and reinforced by larger systems of ableism, and divesting from ableism is an ongoing process of learning (similar to other systems) for everyone, including disabled, neurodivergent, and mad people.
A history of eugenics and institutionalization underlies public health and health care and continues to shape policies, institutions, health care practices, and measurement methods that steal autonomy from disabled people. For this reason, addressing structural ableism is critical to addressing other forms of ableism. Go to my recent article on structural ableism in public health and healthcare where I expand on this with my collaborator Dr. Jess Chen.
Institutional and structural ableism pervades science, research, and academia in ways that systemically exclude disabled, neurodivergent, and mad people. This is detailed in the book “Ableism in Academia: Theorising experiences of disabilities and chronic illnesses in higher education” edited by Nicole Brown and Jennifer Leigh and evidenced in a recent article on NIH grant funding among researchers with disabilities by Dr. Bonnielin Swenor.
Go to my essay about my guiding principles for health equity research and advocacy.
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