, Cornelius 麻豆传媒 Professor of Anthropology, and , associate professor of medical and linguistic anthropology, have received a three-year, $1 million grant from the . The award will fund their project, 鈥淎dvancing a decolonizing agenda to address health inequities and help build global and local U.S. solutions.鈥澨听
鈥淲orking with the , this project, supported by RWJF, will examine the manifold contributions of the cultural context of health to emerging and persistent health inequalities, recognizing that conventional Western biomedical approaches have tended to see health, sickness and disease as purely biological,鈥 said Harvey, who holds an appointment in the 麻豆传媒 Institute for Global Health and is an inaugural innovation ambassador at 麻豆传媒鈥檚 Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization.

The presence of health disparities that are born of diseases long considered to be avoidable, treatable and manageable suggests that solving these inequalities does not necessarily mean more and newer technologies. It will instead require deeper understanding of cultural, risk-related, market-based, political, technological and environmental factors that feed health vulnerabilities and outcomes.听

The team鈥檚 innovative, transdisciplinary approach will offer fresh perspectives that emphasize collaboration and the vital role of social science and humanities research in tackling new and existing health issues. They will begin their work by looking into topics like diabetes, pain and drug use, and emergency response, then will produce evidence-based white papers and academic publications to inspire debate about state and federal policies and practices.听
鈥淭o fully understand the drivers of health inequities in the U.S., we must look beyond biology and consider how history, cultural norms and the legacy of colonialism affect people鈥檚 health today,鈥 said Karabi Acharya, senior director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 鈥淏y drawing insights from community experiences around the world, this project will explore how cultural ideas we believe in become embedded in policies, institutions and systems that affect our health.鈥澨听
Fischer and Harvey have been working in the to show how considering cultural contexts can help us better understand and deal with root causes of illnesses.听听
鈥淭o treat COVID or diabetes or women鈥檚 health, or any such health issue, requires us to look at not only the biology, but also the social, political and economic systems that interact with bodies,鈥 said Fischer, who was the initiative鈥檚 director on the first grant and holds appointments in management and health policy.听听
The project will work with the World Health Organization and international scholars in addition to its U.S.-based participants from and Tuskegee University in new and existing research collaborations.听听
Their local, global and transdisciplinary approach will allow data, research questions and findings to be created jointly by a network of researchers and experts. Acknowledging that the definition of 鈥渆xpert鈥 itself needs to be reevaluated and decolonized, the researchers will involve researchers in relevant fields and, importantly, individuals from affected communities.听听
Harvey and Fischer view this grant as an investment in revolutionizing our understanding of how to rectify the processes, practices and policies that contribute to some of the world鈥檚 most pressing public health challenges鈥攚ith an emphasis on a 鈥渄ecolonizing鈥 approach.听听
Beyond recognizing the exclusionary and marginalizing structures wrought by colonialism, the research will tackle the question of how colonial legacies and biases come to be embedded in the practices of experts and policies. Their work will explicitly consider cultural histories of colonialism as enduring 鈥渉idden鈥 factors that influence people鈥檚 well-being, health outcomes and life chances.听听
They want to move attention beyond explaining health inequalities as solely the result of individual choices, which too often leads to polarizing assignments of personal blame and discounts the importance of changing, reforming and improving the fundamental societal systems to help rectify the inequalities.听听