Spirit of 1848 Caucus |
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The Spirit of 1848 Caucus: A Network Linking Politics, Passion, and Public Health CALL FOR ABSTRACTS American Public Health Association: 131st Annual Meeting "Behavior, Lifestyle and Social Determinants of Health" San Francisco, CA, November 15-19, 2003 The Spirit of 1848 Caucus is organizing 4 oral sessions and 1 poster session for the 131st annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (San Francisco, CA, Nov 15-19, 2003). The sessions will be organized around the 3 themes of our caucus, as described in our mission statement below. These themes concern the inextricable links between social justice and public health, as manifested in: the politics of public health data, social history of public health, and progressive pedagogy. 1) Politics of public health data session: Title: Social Justice & Public Health: Data Needs and Data Privacy Based on discussion at the Spirit of 1848 business meeting at the 2002 APHA annual meeting, we have decided that the Politics of Public Health Data session will be focused on issues surrounding both data needs and data privacy as they relate to social justice and public health in the United States. Following the format we used at the 2002 meeting, the session accordingly will include three presentations (20 minutes each) followed by a brief commentary by a discussant. One talk will address issues pertaining to data needs of grassroots organizations organizing around issues of social justice & public health. The focus will be on what these needs are, innovative ways that groups are meeting these needs, and how these needs can be communicated to and acted upon by public health researchers, agencies, and sponsors. Another talk will address the data privacy issues relevant to the "Privacy Rule" regarding "individually identifiable health information," required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This regulation took effect in April 2001 and compliance is mandated by April 2003. At issue is how these regulations will affect researchers, especially regarding data access and sharing, and their likely impact on research and initiatives focused on links between social justice & public health. The third talk will provide an update on the Racial Privacy Initiative (http://www.racialprivacy.org/ ), scheduled to appear on the California ballot in March 2004. This initiative would ban collection of racial/ethnic data by government agencies, albeit possibly with exemptions for some kinds of medical research and law enforcement activities, and could have tremendous implications for social justice & public health. The discussant will be asked to reflect on issues of data needs & data privacy in relation to work on social justice & public health. Presentations will be solicited. No unsolicited abstracts will be reviewed. This session will be in the Monday afternoon 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm APHA time slot. 2) History session: Title: Immigrant California: Inequality and Public Health in Historical Perspective The identity of California has been intertwined with the historical phenomenon of labor migration. From the Okies of "Grapes of Wrath" to the computer wizards of Silicon Valley, successive waves of immigrants have left their imprint, not only with their cultural backgrounds, but with their particular histories of conflict and struggles for justice. The year of 1848, a period of upheavals in many parts of the world, also coincided with the creation of the U.S.-Mexico border, a porous frontier that has witnessed many deaths of migrants in their journey to California. As a network of people interested in linking issues of social justice and public health, the Spirit of 1848 invites the submission of abstracts on public health dimensions of past and present migration to California. Abstracts can include issues such as: the blaming of migrants for epidemics, death and disease in the course of migration, health issues of migration policy, labor migration in the health sector (the case of Filipina nurses, for example), migrants as vulnerable populations, health practices of migrants, and organizing in migrant communities for health and better living and working conditions, among others. This session will be in the Monday morning 10:30 to 12 noon APHA meeting timeslot. 3) Progressive pedagogy session: Title: Teaching activism for public health Consistent with our mission to connect issues of social justice and public health in our lives and in the work that we do, the Spirit of 1848 invites abstracts presenting ideas for teaching activism in public health to students in diverse kinds of classes: at professional schools, in colleges, or in community-based settings. Abstracts are invited covering the following range of topics: ~ individual courses and/or techniques that have been employed to successfully teach activism; ~ curricular models for teaching activism; ~ pedagogical theory (ies) advancing activism This session will be in Tuesday morning 8:30 to 10:00 am APHA time slot. 4) Integrative session: Title: The politics of war & health: linking social justice & public health-history, data, and pedagogy Starting with the APHA 2002 Conference, the Spirit of 1848 has added a new oral session, in which we integrate the 3 themes of our Caucus. These pertain to the inextricable links between social justice & public health, as embodied in: the politics of public health data, the social history of public health, and progressive pedagogy. This new session will accordingly complement our 3 other oral sessions, which provide opportunities for in-depth discussion pertaining to each of these domains. Based on discussion at the Spirit of 1848 business meeting at the 2002 APHA conference, we have decided that the focus of our 2nd "integrative" oral session will be on "THE POLITICS OF WAR & HEALTH: linking social justice & public health--history, data, and pedagogy". For this session, we are seeking 3 presentations-one on history, one on data, one on pedagogy-as follows (and noting that each presentation should consider the proposed theme in relation to social inequalities in health, especially involving class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, region, etc, and within a larger framework linking issues of social justice & public health): (1) history: a presentation focusing on such issues as: --the role(s) of public health professionals in wars, including opposition to war, OR --the role of war in creating public health institutions to collect data relevant to the war effort that were later used in others sorts of ways (e.g. CDC growing out of the US WWII anti-malaria program), OR --the direct and indirect effects of war and war preparation on public health conditions and infrastructure (i.e. diverting resources away from population-based efforts), OR --the role of war in revealing the poor health of the population intended to be recruited into the army & the role of these data in galvanizing various efforts to improve health (within the countries raising armies), as happened in France in the early 1800s & also England and the US in WWI. (2) data: a presentation focusing on such issues as: --the impact of national security on data suppression, OR --epidemiologic estimates of the impact of war on the health of combatants and non-combatants, OR --epidemiologic estimates of the impact of war on health via interference with public health programs, OR --epidemiologic estimates of the impact of war on the environment, OR --epidemiologic analysis of health of displaced populations (e.g., refugees), OR --conducting public health research in a conflict situation. (3) pedagogy: a presentation focusing on such issues as: --a course (or courses) teaching about the impact of war (high intensity & low level) on health, OR --a course (or courses) that teach about peace & conflict resolution in relation to population health This session will be in the Monday afternoon 4:30 to 6:00 pm APHA time slot. 5) Student poster session: Title: "Social Justice & Public Health: Student Posters" The Spirit of 1848 Caucus is soliciting abstracts from students of public health and health-related programs that highlight the intersection between social justice and public health from a historical, epidemiological, global, and/or methodological perspective. We welcome abstracts on topics ranging from public health research to public health practice to student-initiated courses on connections between social justice & public health. Specifically, abstracts should focus on furthering understanding and action to address the ways that social inequality harms, and social equity improves, the public's health. Examples of social inequality include inequitable social divisions within societies based on social class, race/ethnicity, and gender, as well as inequitable relations between nations and geographical regions. All posters for this session will be selected from contributed abstracts. We will award a **PRIZE** to the best accepted poster for a $50 gift certificate to an independent bookstore. Posters will be judged on scientific merit, presentation, and originality. This session will be in the Tuesday afternoon 12:30 pm to 2 pm APHA time slot. If you have any questions about the proposed Spirit of 1848 sessions, please contact the relevant subcommittee contacts for these sessions, listed below: 1) Public Health Data: Catherine Cubbin 2) Curriculum: Babette Neuberger 3) History: Luis Avilés 4) Integrative session: Nancy Krieger 5) Student poster session: Pamela D. Waterman For additional information about the Spirit of 1848, including our mission statement and why our name is "Spirit of 1848", please see below--and also please visit our website, where you can learn more about our Caucus and see past sessions that we have organized at APHA: http://www.progressivehn.org/ SPIRIT OF 1848 MISSION STATEMENT November 2002 The Spirit of 1848: A Network linking Politics, Passion, and Public Health Purpose and Structure The Spirit of 1848 is a network of people concerned about social inequalities in health. Our purpose is to spur new connections among the many of us involved in different areas of public health, who are working on diverse public health issues (whether as researchers, practitioners, teachers, activists, or all of the above), and live scattered across diverse regions of the United States and other countries. In doing so, we hope to help counter the fragmentation that many of us face: within and between disciplines, within and between work on particular diseases or health problems, and within and between different organizations geared to specific issues or social groups. By making connections, we can overcome some of the isolation that we feel and find others with whom we can develop our thoughts, strategize, and enhance efforts to eliminate social inequalities in health. Our common focus is that we are all working, in one way or another, to understand and change how social divisions based on social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, and age affect the public's health. As an activist and scholarly network, we have established four committees to conduct our work: 1) Public Health Data: this committee will focus on how and why we measure and study social inequalities in health, and develop projects to influence the collection of data in US vital statistics, health surveys, and disease registries. 2) Curriculum: this committee will focus on how public health and other health professionals and students are trained, and will gather and share information about (and possibly develop) courses and materials to spur critical thinking about social inequalities in health, in their present and historical context. 3) E-Networking: this committee will focus on networking and communication within the Spirit of 1848, using e-mail, web page, newsletters, and occasional mailings; it also coordinates the newly established student poster session. 4) History: this committee is in liaison with the Sigerist Circle, an already established organization of public health and medical historians who use critical theory (Marxian, feminist, post-colonial, and otherwise) to illuminate the history of public health and how we have arrived where we are today; its presence in the Spirit of 1848 will help to ensure that our network's projects are grounded in this sense of history, complexity, and context. Work among these committees will be coordinated by our Coordinating Committee, which consists of chair/co-chairs and the chairs/co-chairs of each of the four sub-committees. To ensure accountability, all public activities sponsored by the Spirit of 1848 (e.g., public statements, mailings, sessions at conferences, other public actions) will be organized by these committees and approved by the Coordinating Committee (which will communicate on at least a monthly basis). Annual meetings of the network (so that we can actually see each other and talk together) will take place at the yearly American Public Health Association meetings. Finally, please note that we are NOT a dues-paying membership organization. Instead, we are an activist, volunteer network: you become part of the Spirit of 1848 by working on one of our projects, through one of our committees--and we invite you to join in! NB: for additional information the Spirit of 1848 and our choice of name, see: --Coordinating Committee of Spirit of 1848 (Krieger N, Zapata C, Murrain M, Barnett E, Parsons PE, Birn AE). Spirit of 1848: a network linking politics, passion, and public health. Critical Public Health 1998; 8:97-103. --Krieger N, Birn AE. A vision of social justice as the foundation of public health: commemorating 150 years of the spirit of 1848. Am J Public Health 1998; 88:1603-6 . First issued: Fall 1994; revised: November 2001; November 2001; November 2002 Selected notable events in and around 1848 1840- 1847: Louis Rene Villermé publishes the first major study of workers' health in France, A Description of the Physical and Moral State of Workers Employed in Cotton, Linen, and Silk Mills (1840); in England, Edwin Chadwick publishes General Report on Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population in Great Britain (1842); first child labor laws in the Britain and the United States (1842); end of the Second Seminole War (1842); prison reform movement in the United States initiated by Dorothea Dix (1843); Frederick Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844); John Griscom publishes The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population of New York with Suggestions for Its Improvement (1845); Irish famine (1845-1848) despite high agricultural output and protests against British agricultural and trade policies; start of US-Mexican war (1846); Frederick Douglass founds The North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper (1847); Southwood Smith publishes An Address to the Working Classes of the United Kingdom on their Duty in the Present State of the Sanitary Question (1847) 1848: World-wide cholera epidemic Uprisings in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Palermo, Milan, Naples, Parma, Rome, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and Dakar; start of Second Sikh war against British in India In the midst of the 1848 revolution in Germany, Rudolf Virchow founds the medical journal Medical Reform (Medicinische Reform), and writes his classic "Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia," in which he concludes that preserving health and preventing disease requires "full and unlimited democracy" and radical measures rather than "mere palliatives" Revolution in France, abdication of Louis Philippe, worker uprising in Paris, and founding of The Second Republic, which creates a public health advisory committee attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce and establishes network of local public health councils First Public Health Act in Britain, which creates a General Board of Health, empowered to establish local boards of health to deal with the water supply, sewerage, and control of "offensive trades," and also to conduct surveys of sanitary conditions The newly formed American Medical Association sets up a Public Hygiene Committee to address public health issues First Women's Rights Convention in the United States, at Seneca Falls Henry Thoreau publishes Civil Disobedience, to protest paying taxes to support the United State's war against Mexico Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto 1849- 1854: Elizabeth Blackwell sets up the New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children (1849); Lemuel Shattuck publishes Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts (1850); founding of the London Epidemiological Society (1850); Indian Wars in the southwest and far west (1849-1892); Compromise of 1850 retains slavery in the United States and Fugitive Slave Act passed; Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852); Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I a Woman" speech at the Fourth Seneca Fall convention (1853); John Snow removes the handle of the Broad Street Pump to stop the cholera epidemic in London (1854)
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