November 18, 2024 7:30pm - 8:30pm Behavioral Health Humanities and Community Advancement Lecture Series

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“Experience as Health Data: What the Health Humanities Teaches Us About Listening to Black
Narratives”, presented by Dr. Keisha Ray
 

About: The health humanities, with its emphasis on the value of telling stories and listening to stories, provides a
strong argument for including Black people’s experiences with seeking health care and with social institutions that
influence their generally poorer health outcomes in our discourse on the status of Black people’s health. In this
presentation I make the argument that Black health and health equity research is obligated to include Black people’s
narratives as a means of respecting our culture and presenting an accurate and complete picture of how anti-Black
racism affects health equity for Black people.

Bio: Keisha Ray, PhD, is a tenured associate professor and holds the John P. McGovern, MD, Professorship of
Oslerian Medicine at the McGovern Center for Humanities & Ethics at UTHealth Houston, where she also serves as the
director of the medical humanities scholarly concentration. Most of Dr. Ray’s work focuses on the effects of
institutional racism on Black people's health, highlighting Black people's own stories, and the sociopolitical implications
of biomedical enhancement.