Race, Gender, Class, and COVID-19

October 9, 2020, 1:00-2:30PM
Zoom Webinar

COVID-19 has exposed deep inequities in our society. This faculty panel will explore the structural inequalities laid bare by a pandemic that disproportionately affects so many along divisions of race, gender, and class. Co-sponsored by the Office of Equity & Inclusion and the Office of the Provost; organized in collaboration with Critical Political Studies, UMass.

Speakers include:

Airin Martinez, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, UMass
Dr.Martinez's research examines the sociopolitical and institutional arrangements that produce chronic disease disparities among Latinx immigrants and their US-born children. Dr. Martinez’s current research examines how the local implementation of immigration enforcement policies creates material deprivation and psychosocial stress among Latinx mixed-status families, with at least one unauthorized immigrant. 

Dean E. Robinson, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass
Dean E. Robinson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. His teaching and research focuses on racial and class inequalities in health In the United States. His current projects include a study on the antipoverty policy on black and white birth outcomes, and a co-authored book project on politics, economics and black-white trends in U.S. mortality. He is co-PI on “MOCHA Moving Forward: a CBPR Investigation of Chronic Disease Prevention in Older, Low-income African-American Men” funded by NIMHD, and “Simulation and Decision-Analysis Algorithms for Integrated Modeling of Diseases: A healthy lives for all approach” funded by the NSF.

Javier Rodriguez, Mary Toepelt Nicolai and George S. Blair Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University
Javier Rodríguez’s research incorporates theoretical and methodological principles from economics, demography, psychology, and public health to study the political causes and consequences of socioeconomic and racial disparities in health.

Wilmore Webley, Associate Professor, Pre-Medical & Pre-Dental Advisor, UMass
Dr. Webley is the director of PreMed/PreHealth Advising, and oversees advising for 1,500 undergraduates across campus exploring careers in the medical, dental, and health fields. His research focuses on infectious disease mechanisms and the role of specific infections in chronic diseases. 

Moderated by:

Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, UMass
Dean Siega-Riz serves on the National Institutes of Health Council and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Health and Medicine Division Advisory Committee. Previously, she served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Federal Advisory Committee, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council and the USDA/DHHS Pregnancy Technical Expert Committee, B-24 Months Project. 

Affiliation