Rethinking Health and Well-Being: The Politics of Collective Care and Body Sovereignty

Join us for a two-day conference 

featuring a keynote on Tuesday 3/25 by 

Daylisha Hall-Reid,  Executive Director at Mama Sana Vibrant Woman.

The Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies annual conference offers graduate students the opportunity to share their research with students and faculty, The University of Texas at Austin community, and WGSS community partners.

The deep and persistent racial and cisnormative disparities in health have long been condemned by grassroots movements, scholars, and other activists. In the U.S., Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women (CDC), with reports of under diagnosis, obstetric and medical violence. Transgender and non-binary individuals, especially Black and Latinx trans people, face staggering barriers to healthcare, including fear of discrimination, mistreatment and lack of support from medical providers on trans and gender-affirming care, to name a few.

However, we know that healthcare and well-being disparities do not exist in a vacuum. Healthcare and well-being (or lack thereof) are deeply embedded within broader systems of racism, sexism, and cisnormativity, which subject marginalized communities to daily violence—both physical and psychological, and in turn, poorer health outcomes. Historically, systems of criminalization and incarceration have compounded these harms, linking premature death and prolonged suffering to structures that perpetuate cycles of oppression.

Recent legal and political shifts have further entrenched these disparities. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the erosion of the constitutional right to abortion has profoundly undermined bodily autonomy of pregnant individuals. Simultaneously, state-level legislation, particularly in Texas, has escalated attacks on gender-affirming care, further marginalizing trans and gender-diverse communities from medically necessary assistance from insurers. 

Despite these challenges, collective care and well-being remain at the heart of feminist and anti-racist goals, which envisions health as a form of social justice. These practices open up critical conversations around wellness and health justice. As a case in point, we are particularly focused on emancipatory practices—social movements’ resistance, activism, art, and media production—that challenge oppressive systems, medical and state violence and re-imagine health as a collective goal.  More specifically, we invite participants to re-imagine well-being and frame it as a goal rooted in interconnectedness, body sovereignty, and collective healing.

As Bell Hooks (1999) reminds us in All About Love, “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”.