Structural Intimacies: Sexual Stories in the Black AIDS Epidemic, a new book by Dr. Sonja Mackenzie, Health Equity Institute Adjunct Assistant Professor, will be published June 6th, 2013. Structural Intimacies addresses one of the most urgent social problems in contemporary America - the continuing HIV epidemic among Blacks. The book argues that structural inequalities are central not just to the dramatic and disproportionate spread of HIV in Black communities in the U.S., but also to the production of Black sexualities. 

Published by Rutgers Press, Mackenzie presents an elegant argument that, in an era of deepening medicalization of HIV/AIDS, public health must move beyond individual-level interventions to community-level health equity frames and policy change.

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Dr. Leticia Márquez-Magaña was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service for her dedication, mentorship and advocacy of underrepresented minority students. Learn more her work and about the award.

Pictured: Dr. Leticia Márquez-Magaña (center) with Dr. Leslie Wong, SF State President and his wife Phyllis Wong at the awards ceremony.

Dr. Laura Mamo was published in the March 2013 Journal of Medical Humanities for her article Queering the Fertility Clinic. Read the abstract below and and access the article. 

Abstract:

A sociologist examines contemporary engagements of queer bodies and identities with fertility biomedicine. Drawing on social science, media culture, and the author's own empirical research, three questions frame the analysis: 1. In what ways have queers on the gendered margins moved into the center and become implicated or central users of biomedicine's fertility offerings? 2. In what ways is Fertility Inc. transformed by its own incorporation of various gendered and queered bodies and identities? And 3. What are the biosocial and bioethical implications of expanded queer engagements and possibilities with Fertility Inc.? The author argues that "patient" activism through web 2.0 coupled with a largely unregulated free-market of assisted reproduction has included various queer identities as "parents-in-waiting." Such inclusions raise a set of ethical tensions regarding how to be accountable to the many people implicated in this supply and demand industry.

Vanessa Mercado and Miguel Alcalá from the ELAYO team presented the latest findings at Youth + Tech + Health Conference in April 2013. The presentation was part of the panel: Latino & Immigrant  Communities and Tech: A Good Match. Learn more about the conference.

Pictured: Miguel Alcalá and Vanessa Mercado before the presentation.

UC Berkeley is the lead in a new grant that is part of the 2012 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's (AFRI) Food Security program. The program supports research that will keep American agriculture competitive while helping to end world hunger, and focuses on achieving the long-term outcomes of increasing domestic and international food availability and food accessibility. 

The team at UC Berkeley that includes HEI researchers will work with tribal groups in the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California to build sustainable regional food systems to aid in enhancing tribal health and food security.

The SFSU team, led by Katherine Kim, is leading two youth initiatives working with the Karuk Youth Leadership Council (YLC) to give youth an opportunity to create solutions for healthier communities.

With guidance from the team at SFSU, the Karuk YLC will design and implement two mobile health technology-enabled projects: 1) Youth led community food and health assessment and 2) Youth led health/adventure walk to encourage physical exercise and nutrition education.

The grant is funded through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Read the full release.

Dr. Cynthia Gómez, Health Equity Institute (HEI) Director, led a panel at a symposium at San Francisco State University that discussed programs that are preparing individuals with skills to go into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. The symposium highlighted the range of programs at SFSU that are related to STEM careers. The symposium was part of the week of activities for the investiture of SFSU new president Les Wong. Dr. Christina Sabee, co-PI of iN Touch, also spoke about the iN Touch project and the activities she plans to roll out as a follow-up from the project. 

Read the full article in a new window on the SFSU news. 

Laura Mamo, Associate Professor of Health Education and Health Equity Institute faculty and Jessica Fields, Associate Professor of Sociology and Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality faculty are collaborating on a new initiative to shift how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) sexuality is discussed in schools. The project titled, "Beyond Bullying: Shifting the Discourse of LGBTQ Sexuality and Youth in Schools" is funded by the Ford Foundation's Sexuality Research Initiative. Read the full Beyond Bullying SFSU press release. 

Pictured Above L to R: Laura Mamo, Jessica Fields  

Enjoy a week in the city by the bay and join us for the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Institute for Health Equity, hosted by San Francisco State University. This year's Institute will feature keynotes from national leaders in CBPR as well as case studies of current CBPR projects in Northern California. The Institute will also include skills-building CBPR workshops, networking opportunities, and site visits to local CBPR projects. The Institute will increase participants' capacity to engage in CBPR to promote health and social justice. The Health Equity Institute is one of the partners and on the planning committee along with other programs, Universities and organizations working together to bring you this workshop. 

Health Equity for HOPE SF, a collaboration led by HEI's Jessica Wolin, will be one of the case studies at the institute on Monday June 24th.  

DETAILS:

Course Fees:*

Academic Partners: $750 (full week); $180 (per day)

Public Health Agencies: $500 (full week); $100 (per day)

Community Based Organizations, Non-profits, & Students: $250 (full week); $50 (per day)

Credit: Course fees waived for students who enroll in the Institute for 2 credits through their respective campuses (25 student credit slots available)

Location: San Francisco State University.

To see the full agenda: download the PDF  

Register: http://cbprinstitute.wordpress.com/ 

Planning Committee:  Chinese Progressive Association, Commonweal, The Data Center, Plumbline Consulting, Inc., California Breast Cancer Research Program, CANFIT, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, The California Endowment, Health Equity Institute and Health Education Department at San Francisco State University, University of New Mexico, University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; University of California, San Francisco, San Jose State University, Stanford University.

This conference is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant # 1R13MD007620-01)

Join us for the release of four new short documentaries from the Documentary for Health and Social Justice Spring 2013 students. These films have been inspired and created by SF State students.

Event Details:

When: Wednesday, May 22nd

Time: Reception at 6:30pm; Film Screening at 7:00pm

Location: Coppola Theater (Fine Arts 101) San Francisco State University

Other details:

• The event is free and open to the public! We look forward to seeing you there.

• If you have any questions, please email us at hei@sfsu.edu or call (415) 405-2540

PRESENTED BY:
The Health Equity Institute and the SFSU Cinema department

HED/CINE 527: Documentary for Health and Social Justice is a transdisciplinary film production course at San Francisco State University that has produced more than 30 short documentaries.

Dr. Anne Pollock will speak about her book Medicating Race: Heart Disease and Durable Preoccupations with Difference at HEI on Monday May 20th. The talk will go from 12-1 PM in HSS 361 and is open to the public. Anne Pollock is an Assistant Professor of Science, Technology & Culture in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech University. Read her book description below. 

In Medicating Race, Anne Pollock traces the intersecting discourses of race, pharmaceuticals, and heart disease in the United States over the past century, from the founding of cardiology through the FDA's approval of BiDil, the first drug sanctioned for use in a specific race. She examines wide-ranging aspects of the dynamic interplay of race and heart disease: articulations, among the founders of American cardiology, of heart disease as a modern, and therefore white, illness; constructions of "normal" populations in epidemiological research, including the influential Framingham Heart Study; debates about the distinctiveness African American hypertension, which turn on disparate yet intersecting arguments about genetic legacies of slavery and the comparative efficacy of generic drugs; and physician advocacy for the urgent needs of black patients on professional, scientific, and social justice grounds. Ultimately, Pollock insists that those grappling with the meaning of racialized medical technologies must consider not only the troubled history of race and biomedicine but also its fraught yet vital present. Medical treatment should be seen as a site of, rather than an alternative to, political and social contestation. The aim of scholarly analysis should not be to settle matters of race and genetics, but to hold medicine more broadly accountable to truth and justice. 

ELAYO: Empower Latino Youth is looking for Latino/a teens living in California between the ages of 14-18 years old to take a survey. The survey will ask questions about sexuality, family, school, and your experience as a Latino/a. The survey should take 20- 30 minutes to complete. You will receive a $10 iTunes gift card and a chance to enter a raffle to win an iPod Nano. Take the survey.

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