RWJF Faculty Seed Grants

This study aims to learn from culturally grounded approaches to health and wellbeing, challenging homogenizing frameworks and Western design processes that have long shaped health promotion. Toward this end, the research team will develop a novel framework that leverages cultural knowledge, strengthens existing care networks, and generates contextually grounded health-promotion interventions for racially and ethnically minoritized groups. Specifically, they will co-develop a culturally grounded diabetes-prevention program with adult Latina immigrants to strengthen public health promotion, in close partnership with a local non-profit.

This study will examine how historical processes of displacement and dispossession of home produced through housing policy have led to racial intergenerational health disparities and trauma. The project focuses on Indianapolis as a case study, a city with one of the highest rates of eviction in the United States. While scholars have emphasized the centrality of housing as a producer and an outcome of inequalities, the connections between housing dispossession, race, and health have not been disentangled and theorized. The research team seeks to remedy this research gap through documenting and mapping historical processes of housing displacement and conduct digital storytelling and participatory mapping workshops with community members, in partnership with local youth serving community-based organizations in Indianapolis.

This study considers public policy surrounding newborn drug testing and the potential racial disparities in drug testing and prenatal care that may follow. Between 2000 and 2019, the number of states where healthcare professionals were legally required to report suspected prenatal drug abuse to child protective services or other officials grew from 12 states to 23 states. Reporting requirements may affect provider decisions about which mothers and newborns to test and may shape mother’s decisions about health care utilization, consent, and honesty. Understanding the tradeoffs between different reporting requirements and testing procedures—and in particular, the potential link with racial disparities in newborn drug testing and prenatal care—is essential to designing effective maternal and infant health policies that reduce racial inequalities.