Embodying history – and changing it: Health inequities, social justice, and biology in context – the case of breast cancer

Conscious of the role of history in shaping the contours of – and awareness and action to tackle – changing patterns of health inequities, our Spirit of 1848 integrative session will critically examine issues of social justice and public health across the “lifespan” using the case example of breast cancer, across different timescales and levels. The session will address the 3 foci of our Caucus: the social history of public health, the politics of public health data, and progressive pedagogy for public health. Keith Wailoo, drawing on his new book How Cancer Crossed the Color Line, will discuss shifts in the 20th c US depiction of cancer from being a white woman's nemesis – epitomized by breast cancer – to a "democratic disease" to a fearsome threat in communities of color, with the “war on cancer” continuing to be waged along the color line. Next, Nancy Krieger will argue, using the case example of the breast cancer estrogen receptor and what she calls its four histories (evolutionary, pathological, individual, and societal), that critical engagement with history matters vitally for understanding – and preventing – both the causes of disease and the causes of health inequities. Linda Burhansstipanov (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), will then discuss how the community-based participatory outreach and education work led by Native American Cancer Research, including for breast cancer, critically integrates understandings of history, especially those of Indigenous Peoples in the US, and of life stages, in their efforts to promote wellness, cancer prevention, and cancer control.