FOCUS
How might an understanding of structural violence inform interventions that ameliorate the disproportionate burden of illness on Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color in the U.S.? How does moving beyond race, class, and geography as inherent risk factors, to an understanding of racism, classism, and segregation, allow for more accurate disease modeling and illuminate points of intervention within the health care system and beyond?
In her doctoral studies, Emmanuella has conducted research on HIV prevention in rural South Africa, tuberculosis disparities in the U.S., and anti-Black and anti-Indigenous police violence. Her current research focuses on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on structurally marginalized communities. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, Emmanuella hopes to use social theory to bring a critical perspective to epidemiology.
MORE ABOUT EMMANUELLA
As a Nigerian immigrant who has called New York City home since early childhood, and contended with homelessness among other dimensions of urban poverty, Emmanuella has seen firsthand the impact of social factors on the illness experience. As both a physician and scholar in training, she seeks to center structurally marginalized communities through mixed methodology research.
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — WINTER 2023
Segregation and the Infectious Disease Illness Experience: The cases of HIV and COVID-19 in South Africa and the United States
Segregation exists on a spectrum from highly visible manifestations, such as South Africa during apartheid and the United States during Jim Crow, to the more subtle displays in a post-Apartheid South Africa and a 21st century United States. Yet, little global health research on HIV in South Africa situates the current HIV emergency in the context of this history of state-sponsored segregation and there is limited academic work on the impact of segregation, a spatial manifestation of structural racism, on access to the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. My dissertation puts the HIV emergency in South Africa in conversation with the COVID-19 pandemic (especially the 1st wave) in the United States with a focus on how intentional segregation (of Black communities in particular) presently shapes these health emergencies.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HPRS DISSERTATION AWARDS, CLICK HERE.
