scholarly journals Using Black Feminist Theory and Methods to Uncover Best Practices in Health Promotion Programming

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110611
Author(s):  
Jeannette Wade ◽  
Ramine Alexander ◽  
Cheryl Woods Giscombé ◽  
Daniel Keegan ◽  
Sharon Parker ◽  
...  

This study was created to uncover the social determinants of Black American women’s success in health promotion programs. We used the Superwoman Schema to understand the complexities of Black womanhood and uncover best practices in the promotion of their health. The sample consisted of women ages 18–25 who attend a large southern HBCU. We collected data using qualitative focus groups. Participants reported the greatest health-related concerns Black American women facing are mental health, obesity, and relationships with Black men. When it comes to health promotion programs, respondents reported a desire for classes that are fun, interactive, informative, educational, and include group interaction, accessible, and incentivize participation. Uncovering the social determinants of Black American women’s health and program success is central in decreasing extant health disparities. Future health scholars are urged to incorporate Black feminist theory and methods into their work to create health promotion interventions tailored for Black women.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 20S-26S
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Petteway

Health promotion is facing a most challenging future in the intersections of structural racism, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), racialized police violence, and climate change. Now is a critical moment to ask how health promotion might become more responsive to and representative of people’s daily realities. Also how it can become a more inclusive partner in, and collaborative conduit of, knowledge—one capable of both informing intellects and transforming hearts. It needs to feel the pulse of the “fierce urgency of now,” and perhaps nothing can reveal this pulse more than the creative power of art—especially poetry. Drawing from critical and Black feminist theory, I use commentary in prose to conceptualize and call for an epistemically just health promotion guided by poetry as praxis—not just as method. I posit that, as praxis rooted in lived realities, poetry becomes experiential excavation and illumination; a practice of community, communion, and solidarity; a site and source of healing; and a space to create new narratives of health to forge new paths toward its promotion. I accordingly suggest a need to view and value poetry as a critical scholarship format to advance health promotion knowledge, discourse, and action toward a more humanized pursuit—and narrative—of health equity.


Genealogy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Chantae D. Still

In this genealogical narrative, the author researches her deceased maternal grandmother Eula Mae’s life and explores ways that various events created the social climates that drove her grandmother’s decision-making and influenced her family’s trajectory. The author uses Black Feminist Theory to understand and reflect on relevant factors such as the presence of oppression and mental health issues, while applying information passed down from relatives with artifacts obtained through Ancestry.com, to gain appreciation for her grandmother’s choices. This document details a grandmother’s fight to create a new normal for her children by persevering through figurative chains of White supremacy and systemic racism and a granddaughter’s journey to obtain answers for the questions she didn’t have an opportunity to ask.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 282-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stokols

Health promotion programs often lack a clearly specified theoretical foundation or are based on narrowly conceived conceptual models. For example, lifestyle modification programs typically emphasize individually focused behavior change strategies, while neglecting the environmental underpinnings of health and illness. This article compares three distinct, yet complementary, theoretical perspectives on health promotion: behavioral change, environmental enhancement, and social ecological models. Key strengths and limitations of each perspective are examined, and core principles of social ecological theory are used to derive practical guidelines for designing and evaluating community health promotion programs. Directions for future health promotion research are discussed, including studies examining the role of intermediaries (e.g., corporate decision-makers, legislators) in promoting the well-being of others, and those evaluating the duration and scope of intervention outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiv Issar

In this paper, I propose the concept of “algorithmic dissonance”, which characterizes the inconsistencies that emerge through the fissures that lie between algorithmic systems that utilize system identities, and sociocultural systems of knowledge that interact with them. A product of human-algorithm interaction, algorithmic dissonance builds upon the concepts of algorithmic discrimination and algorithmic awareness, offering greater clarity towards the comprehension of these sociotechnical entanglements. By employing Du Bois’ concept of “double consciousness” and black feminist theory, I argue that all algorithmic dissonance is racialized. Next, I advocate for the use of speculative methodologies and art for the creation of critically informative sociotechnical imaginaries that might serve a basis for the sociological critique and resolution of algorithmic dissonance. Algorithmic dissonance can be an effective check against structural inequities, and of interest to scholars and practitioners concerned with running “algorithm audits”.


Author(s):  
Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis ◽  
Roselyn K. Banda ◽  
Sarah A. Kinley

This chapter explores the challenge of creating a “liberated” classroom, one that digresses from the norm in both content and structure according to feminist principles. This teaching project was designed to create a unique learning environment through the use of black feminist pedagogy. Charged with teaching a cross-listed course (Women's Studies, Black Studies) entitled “Black Feminist Theory,” the teaching team consisted of a professor, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student. The team came together from a diversity of educational experiences in the U.S. and Africa. This chapter is a reflection of the team's experiences co-teaching a “non-traditional” course as well as a collective inquiry about the strategic importance of incorporating oppositional discourse into the college curriculum.


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