Dear Colleagues,
The last few weeks have been unbearably heavy and painful. The devastating school shooting in Uvalde, the horrific and racist massacre in Buffalo, the attack on Taiwanese parishioners in California, require us to ask why and commit to using the tools we have in public health to change this trajectory, which places the U.S. as a stark outlier globally on gun violence. Of course, hate is not uniquely American, and the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, in Jenin and the ongoing war in Ukraine are just two examples where the FXB Center has a clear role to play in bearing witness and analyzing the impact of oppression on health and health equity.
And violence does not always involve guns. The leaked Roe v. Wade draft decision, and the ongoing indifference, by so many, for the unequal and ongoing harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, even after we have surpassed 1 million deaths in the U.S. and 6 million globally (a likely underestimate), are clear examples of what the late Paul Farmer would describe as “structural violence.”
Understandably, many are feeling exhausted and angry. And, it can be difficult to find moments of joy. Yet, I found hope this week celebrating the successes and graduations of members of our FXB family.
I sat in a room with health officials and watched Tori Cowger use data and her compelling analysis to persuade a town to re-institute mask mandates for school children. I listened to Keletso Makofane, joined by Marie Plaisime and Brittney Butler, describe to potential funders an exciting new initiative for data transparency and data visualization to improve research on racism and health, and plans for The Constellations Project to be launched on June 15 (stay tuned for more details). I watched Ivan Busulwa, Akosua Dankwah, and Griffin Jones’s oral presentations describing their work to improve health and well-being in partnership with community groups and faith leaders. And I felt tremendous hope and joy when three members of our FXB community – Jourdyn Lawrence, Ashley Gripper, and Jackie Jahn – accepted positions to begin as Assistant Professors this fall. The future of public health is undoubtedly bright because of the shared commitment of so many, include those at the FXB Center, to social justice and health equity.
I hope you too will find hope and joy in the small and big accomplishments (individual and collective) and welcome you to visit our website to learn more about our ongoing work.
Wishing everyone a moment of rest and recuperation this summer,
Dr. Natalia Linos
Acting Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
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The Roma Holocaust/Roma Genocide in Southeastern Europe: Between Oblivion, Acknowledgment, and Distortion
This project assesses the current level of knowledge regarding the Roma Holocaust/Roma Genocide in the public sphere and maps patterns of denial and distortion and their perpetuation over decades. This event features a report launch, which also provides relevant stakeholders with synoptical knowledge and recommendations to develop historically informed anti-discrimination initiatives and measures to counteract distortion and prevent racial discrimination and identity-based violence.
The webinar will feature a discussion between the experts who were part of this research initiative and the interested public as input to inclusive dialogue and action regarding Holocaust memorialization, research, and education as tools against identity-based violence, mass atrocities, and democratic backsliding globally. To learn more and register, please click here. |
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Drive For Equity: What Health Equity Means To Us
Please join us at the Dudley Cafe in Boston for dinner and a conversation with local students, community members, and researchers to connect through storytelling. We will be featuring the work of three FXB scholar/activists.
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Project N95, Harvard FXB Center Launch Masks for Communities to Distribute 1m Units of Respiratory Protection |
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The pandemic is sadly not over and as mask-mandates are removed and federal funding for COVID-19 response and mitigation measures decrease, risk for infection among the most vulnerable, including poor people, increases significantly. A key health equity strategy is to remove financial barriers to accessing proven preventive measures that reduce community transmission.
In partnership with national nonprofit Project N95, the FXB Center is proud to be part of a bold initiative #Masks4All, which aims to distribute high filtration masks to local communities most impacted, at no cost. Working with community groups across 11 states, we have already distributed over 500,000 respirators, and have made a commitment to reach 1 million this year. To learn more about the campaign, or to make a donation, please see: https://www.projectn95.org/masks-for-communities-coalition.
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FXB Director of Research Professor Jacqueline Bhabha Reacts 2 Weeks After Invasion of Ukraine |
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“More than 2 million Ukrainian citizens and residents have fled the relentless military violence unleashed on their country by Russian President Putin. Images of innocent civilians forced to flee life-threatening attacks on their homes and communities are all too familiar. In less than a decade we have already witnessed massive forced migration from Syria, Myanmar, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Tigray. Again and again, global publics have been brought face-to-face with the enormity of human suffering willfully and indiscriminately inflicted by brutal leaders on peaceful populations.
These populations are compelled to navigate arduous exits, to undertake painful decisions about whom and what to take or leave, to make terrifying choices about where to head for safety and security. As has been the case before, so too with the Ukrainian refugees, the first response from receiving communities has been one of enormous generosity and solidarity. But the Ukrainian situation is radically different in a key respect. For the first time since World War II, a massive exodus of refugees seeking safety in Europe has been met with a very timely, generous and hugely consequential official welcome across the Union as a whole.
The fact that Ukrainian refugees, once they settle in their chosen temporary destination, will be able to seek regular work, send their children to school, seek health care and housing on fair terms, will not erase the horror of the past weeks or the devastating losses that have resulted. But this dignified and appropriate response by states towards non-citizens in desperate need of protection will greatly alleviate their ongoing trauma. It will allow the Ukrainian refugees to protect their children from new terrors, and to avoid the brutalization of racist taunts or indignities that so many other refugees have inflicted on them in places where they seek protection. It will allow the Ukrainian refugees to contribute their skills and energies to the host societies, strengthening the latter’s resolve to continue their solidarity. Perhaps, out of the horror of the barbarous invasion of Ukraine, a silver lining will emerge: that future governments facing the arrival of forced migrants will recognize the imperative of acting with foresight, humanity and justice because the outcomes are win-win all round.”
As we go to press, the number of Ukrainians forced to flee their country exceeds 6.5 million. Over 2/3rds of Ukrainian children have lost their homes and the scale of human and material devastation continue to escalate. At the same time, the situation in Ukraine continues to transform the landscape of international humanitarian response. With unprecedented speed, international criminal justice measures are taking shape. On May 23, the International Criminal Court in the Hague handed down the first conviction of a Russian soldier for war crimes and an ICC team is pursuing on site investigations in thousands of other cases, even as the war continues.
The FXB Center Migration Program has launched a research collaboration on Refugee Solidarity which includes colleagues in Poland working with the Ukrainian refugee response.
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Summer Program on Migration & Refugee Rights |
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Photo from virtual program launch event.
The Summer Program on Migration and Refugees, set to start on July 11 in Greece, is the latest addition to the FXB Center’s pedagogical agenda. Born from the Center’s longstanding commitment to the advocacy of refugee’s rights and from a research agenda that spans continents and regions, the 3 week Summer Program offers a multidisciplinary space for participants to study the very real and extensive human, social and political consequences of forced migration. The program brings together 30 students from the two Universities, as well as from other Universities across the world, to learn from each other and with each other in one of the epicenters of distress migration. Participants will have the opportunity to hear and learn from more than 40 experts and participate in simulation activities, forums, seminars, and fieldwork.
The program was welcomed by the Harvard community, with a significant number of students applying for consideration. This year’s Harvard cohort is a diverse one and includes 15 graduate and doctoral students from many schools across the University. During the program’s inaugural year, the Harvard FXB center provided a full fellowship to one Harvard student with refugee background, and is partially funding a significant number of participants. Talking about the summer program, Dr Digidiki, who directs the program, said “We are confident that students and future advocates will benefit tremendously from this program on forced migration because it sets the stage for the exchange of knowledge, experience, expertise and skillsets across disciplines and continents, and allows scholars and students to see the phenomenon in its fullest context.”
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Litigating for Roma Rights |
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Harvard International Review Interview with Dr. Margareta Matache |
Dr. Margareta Matache is a Roma rights activist from Romania and the director of the Roma Program at Harvard FXB. She is an instructor at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and is also the author of “Time for Reparations,” which she co-edited with Professor Jacqueline Bhabha and Professor Caroline Elkins.
Roma people have been stigmatized and discriminated against across Europe since the 10th century when Romani people first began emigrating from India. How has that discrimination changed over time? How is it perpetuated by stereotypes?
In the case of Roma, racism has been continuous and has targeted Roma for more than 700 years. Anti-Roma racism has persisted but transformed over time, and to understand it, we can look at it from at least two angles: by clustering the pillars of anti-Roma racism and by cataloging the manifestations of anti-Roma racism. To clarify, when I talk about anti-Roma racism, I do not talk only about prejudice or discrimination, but about complex and often invisible machinery of hegemony and control embedded in the organization of power and in various axes of power across Europe. Anti-Roma racism is not just an isolated act of discrimination or a fuming expression of hate speech. It is the totality of ways in which Roma experience oppression, disrespect, inequality.
Roma experience everyday racism, or what David Williams at Harvard Chan School of Public Health calls “everyday discrimination.” These are situations when Roma are treated with disrespect, ignored, feared, overlooked, or underappreciated just because of their Roma heritage. Unfortunately, we do not talk much about such experiences when we study and measure anti-Roma discrimination in Europe or elsewhere, but such experiences torment many Roma children and youth, as it's often hard to unveil right away everyday discrimination. Yet, such circumstances happen on a daily basis and impact Roma children and youth in their social and school interactions and school performance, including through a loss of self-esteem.
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Please join us in welcoming Vladimir to the FXB Center as our Financial and Grants Management Associate. Vlad is a native of Rivne, Ukraine. He has experience in finance, consulting, strategy, international development, and engineering.
Vladimir completed two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree in engineering at the Ukrainian State University of Water Management. He earned an MBA at Georgetown University, a Master of Science in International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM), concentration in Government, at Harvard University, Division of Continuing Education. Immediately prior to his current role, he worked at Harvard University Employees Credit Union since 2016, most recently as a Financial Associate/Secondary Market and Servicing Analyst.
We are glad to have his support. Welcome from the FXB Team, Vlad!
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For the seventh year, the FXB Center awarded an interdisciplinary qualification in child protection to Harvard graduate students who completed the program successfully. This year, FXB awarded 22 certificates and acknowledged 12 individuals who carried over from last year’s cohort to finish the program in this academic year. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean Williams addressed the Certificate Awarding reception, citing the Child Protection Certificate Program as an important example of the School's commitment to expanding what graduate education offers, including a focus on public health and social justice issues. Representing a wide range of Harvard's graduate schools, CPC recipients have different career paths, but share the common goal of increasing the reach and depth of child protection measures. As Professor Jacqueline Bhabha said, "we were delighted to work with a very committed and talented cohort of graduates throughout the year, and look forward to welcoming them as colleagues going forward."
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Health & Human Rights Journal |
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Health and Human Rights Journal Special Edition on Palestinian Health
The next special edition on Palestinian Health will explore the conceptual and material connections between settler colonialism and health in the Palestinian context. Themes will include the manifestations of settler colonialism, such as apartheid, the logic of elimination, and Palestinians’ right to health.
Papers will explore themes that include:
- The implications of integrating a framework of apartheid, settler colonialism, or structural racism with the HRBA to Palestinian health and wellbeing
- Decolonial and/or anticolonial means of achieving the right to health within the current Palestinian context
- The impacts of systemic, structural, or direct racism on the health of Palestinians
Questions about this special section and outline abstracts can be directed to Bram Wispelwey via email at bwispelwey@bwh.harvard.edu.
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Built and Social Environments, Environmental Justice, and Maternal Pregnancy Complications
Authors: Brittney Butler, Ashley Gripper, and Natalia Linos
"Most research exploring environmental factors and maternal pregnancy complications has centered on environmental pollutants, from air pollution to toxic waste and environmental chemicals, with environmental racism commonly understood as the disproportionate concentration of environmental pollutants or hazards in or near communities of color. However, a broader understanding of environmental racism to include the lack of access to beneficial built and social environmental resources such as greenspace, safe and affordable housing, quality education, nutrient-rich food, quality public transportation, treated water, and nature is needed to comprehensively address seemingly intractable inequities. The negative social and built environment consequences resulting from industrial, governmental, and commercial operations or policies are rarely explored in the literature or included in population level environmental justice interventions." Read the full publication here
Publications Overview:
June 2022
Nancy Krieger
Nancy Krieger (Co-Author)
May 2022
Brittney Butler, Ashley Gripper, and Natalia Linos
April 2022
Jourdyn A. Lawrence and Mary T. Bassett (Co-Authors)
Margaret M. Sullivan (Contributor)
March 2022
Jourdyn A. Lawrence and Mary T. Bassett (Co-Authors)
February 2022
Margaret M. Sullivan, Margareta Matache, Samuel Peisch, and JacquelineBhabha
January 2022
Satchit Balsari (Co-Author)
Justin Feldman (Co-Author)
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Black mothers die at higher rates. Florida’s "Stop WOKE Act" could make that worse.
FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Dr. Brittney Butler writes in the Miami Herald:
"With COVID-19 as a national case study, public health and medical communities publicly reckoned with how historical and contemporary racism (i.e., a system of opportunity based on socially assigned race) impacts health for Black families. We must continue to do so and oppose HB 7 being signed into law." Read the op-ed here
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Scholar Activism: The Role of Academia in Advancing Social Justice and Racial Equity |
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Academics and researchers, especially at institutions such as Harvard, are often viewed as disconnected from the real world, studying esoteric questions that are distant (if not irrelevant) to policy, practice, and decisions that impact the daily lives of people. At the same time, an unspoken expectation for research to be ‘neutral’ often creates tensions for students and scholars who are uncomfortable simply studying discrimination and inequality, and want their work to have an impact in advancing social justice. This VPAL Signature Event by Harvard’s Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, in conjunction with the Harvard Alumni Association, featured FXB’s Natalia Linos, Magda Matache, and Jasmine Graves for a vibrant discussion on what it means to be a scholar-activist. |
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Medical Ethics: From Antiquity to the Current Pandemic |
FXB hosted a discussion with specialists in the field of medicine and bioethics, as well as with an engagement with the Hippocratic corpus, one of the central, and most influential collection of works in the history of medicine, written at a time when medical and ethical questions were seen as intrinsically intertwined. |
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Arc of History: Dr. Magda Matache |
The history of anti-Roma racism has rarely been considered in global conversations on race and racism. In this session, Dr. Matache: a) places the oppression and the racialization of Roma since the 1300s (and perhaps earlier) in the world’s history of race and racism; and b) discusses pillars and manifestations of anti-Roma racism. |
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From the Frontlines: Humanitarian Responses to the Ukraine Crisis |
The Carr Center’s Human Rights in Hard Places talk series offers unparalleled insights and analysis from the frontlines by human rights practitioners, policymakers, and innovators. Featuring Prof. Jacqueline Bhabha. |
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Fossil Fuels, Health, and Frontline Indigenous Communities |
FXB Acting Director Dr. Natalia Linos joined a discussion on how we can uplift Indigenous voices and curb the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on frontline communities, featuring a panel of Indigenous leaders and Harvard faculty, hosted by C-CHANGE, Harvard University Native American Program and the Native American Alumni. |
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Europe’s Problem With The Roma |
Dr. Matache is featured in a video by AJ+ which highlights how Romani people have been a part of European culture for centuries — Charlie Chaplin and flamenco both have Romani origins. But, this ethnic group has been discriminated against for hundreds of years, culminating in the death of hundreds of thousands of them in the Holocaust. And the Romani still face open bigotry. |
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