The SHE Lab
The Sociology of Health and Equity (SHE) Lab
uses sociological frameworks and methods to critically examine the role of race, racism, and related intersections in shaping health disparities, and works creatively and collectively towards equitable solutions that address social factors as root causes to health disparities.
In this lab, members will:
-Support, affirm, and hold one another accountable to equitable research praxis and collaboration
-Gain a greater understanding of sociology of health and illness, critical race theory, and health equity
-Learn the fundamentals of sociological and health research, through direct experience and with the process of engaging research
-Think critically about health equity solutions and critical public health praxis
-Be able to articulate both short- and long-term personal and professional goals and have concrete plans for achieving them
SHE Lab Publications
Laster Pirtle, Whitney N. and Tashelle Wright.* 2021. “Structural Gendered Racism Revealed in Pandemic Times: Intersectional Approaches to Understanding Race and Gender Health Disparities in Covid-19.” Gender & Society 35(2):168–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432211001302
Zermeño, Alejandro* and Whitney N. Laster Pirtle. 2021. ““It’s Medicine to Me”: Examining Coping Resources and Strategies Utilized in the Sweat Lodge Ritual Experience to Improve Health of Indigenous-Identifying Mexican Americans” Wellbeing, Space & Society 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2021.100059
Laster Pirtle, Whitney N. 2020. “Racial Capitalism: A Fundamental Cause of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Inequities.” Health Education & Behavior 47(4):504–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120922942
Laster Pirtle, Whitney N., Zulema Valdez, Katie Daniels, Maria Duenas, and Denise Castro.*2020. “Conceptualizing Ethnicity: How Dimensions of Ethnicity Affect Disparities in Health Outcomes Among Latinxs in the United States” Ethnicity & Disease 30(3):489-500. https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.30.3.489
Suggested Readings
Sociology of Health and Illness
Pearlin, Leonard I. 1989. “The Sociological Study of Stress.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 30: 241-56.
Link, Bruce G. and Jo Phelan. 1995. “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. (Extra Issue):80-94.
Scambler, Graham. 2012. “Health Inequalities.” Sociology of Health & Illness 34(1):130–46.
Racism* and Health Disparities
Bowleg, Lisa. 2012. “The problem with the phrase women and minorities: intersectionality—an important theoretical framework for public health.” American journal of public health, 102(7):1267-1273.
Brown, Tony N. 2003. “Critical Race Theory Speaks to the Sociology of Mental Health: Mental Health Problems Linked to Racial Stratification.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44(3):292-301.
Phelan, Jo C., and Bruce G. Link. 2015. "Is racism a fundamental cause of inequalities in health?." Annual Review of Sociology 41: 311-330.
Gee, Gilbert C., and Chandra L. Ford. 2011. “Structural Racism and Health Inequities: Old Issues, New Directions.” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 8(1):115–32.
Harrell, Shelly P. 2000. “A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color.” American journal of Orthopsychiatry 70(1): 42-57.
Williams, David R. and Chiquita Collins. 2001. Racial residential segregation: a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Public Health Reports 116(5): 404–416.
Health Equity
Boyd, Rhea W., Lindo, Edwin G., Weeks, L.D. and McLemore, Monica R., 2020. On racism: a new standard for publishing on racial health inequities. Health Affairs Blog, 10.
Jones, Camara P. 2014. Systems of power, axes of inequity: Parallels, intersections, braiding the strands. Medical Care, 52(10 Suppl. 3), S71–S75
Wallack, Lawrence. 2019. “Building a Social Justice Narrative for Public Health.” Health Education & Behavior 46(6) 901–904
Ford, Chandra L., & Airhihenbuwa, Collins O. 2010. The public health critical race methodology: praxis for antiracism research. Social Science & Medicine, 71(8), 1390-1398.
Recommended Texts for further reading
Ansell, David A. 2017. The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press.
Roberts, Dorothy E. 1999. Killing the black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. Vintage Books.
Watkins-Hayes, Celeste. 2019. Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality. University of California Press.
Washington, Harriet A. 2006. Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. NY: Doubleday Books.