…if Black women as a whole were healthy, it would mean that many of the barriers to quality health care would necessarily be removed, creating a more ethical and just health culture for everyone.

Articulating Black Feminist Health Science Studies by Moya Bailey and Whitney Peoples

When I was writing my dissertation, I started thinking about the way that science and medicine represented Black women. Through analyzing the sociocultural aspects of medical education after the release of the influential Flexner Report in 1910 that standardized the study of medicine in North America, I built a foundation for understanding how representations shape medical students understandings of potential patients and themselves. An ideal student and patient emerged that reinforce one another at the expense of bodily diversity among patients and students, exacerbating care disparities through what Patricia Hill Collins calls “controlling images.” This project led to connecting with Dr. Whitney Peoples around questions of media and medicine as examined through a Black Feminist lens and thus, the Black Feminist Health Science Studies Collective was born.

Welcome!

Moya Bailey