Abstract

Teaching Antiracism through Collaboration Between Medical History and Public Health Practice through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Projects

Suzanne Gaulocher, PhD, MPH¹, Rebecca Noel , PhD ¹, Nicole Jaskiewicz, PhD ², Brianna Luscher , Undergraduate Student ¹, Haydn Huard, Undergraduate Student ¹ (1)Plymouth State University , (2)Dartmouth College

APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

For the past five years, Plymouth State University has emphasized the cluster learning model, a unique approach to learning and teaching that activates interdisciplinary inquiry and project-based learning beyond the walls of the classroom. In the spring semesters of 2021 & 2022, a collaboration between three courses, Health and Illness in American History, Intro to Biochemistry, and Guided Practice in Public Health, came together to work on common projects. Together students and faculty read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and produced three ArcGIS StoryMaps and a Pressbook on student-generated topics that integrate history, public health, medical ethics, systems of oppression, and social justice. Students were asked to select topics from the book, the legacy of Henrietta Lacks’ life, and the impact of HeLa cells. Students were grouped based on interest and engaged in topic-specific research projects. It was our aim that integrated cluster learning would give students the opportunity to comprehensively explore concepts presented in the book and apply those concepts in the ArcGIS StoryMaps and Pressbook projects. The ArcGIS StoryMaps included: (1) The city of Baltimore, (2) a historical timeline of ethics in research, and (3) places where Henrietta Lacks spent time. Students also collaborated on an open-access Pressbook, A Reader’s Guide to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, begun in 2021 in partnership with a Biochemistry class. Public Health students edited each entry for public health framing with reference to social determinants of health, while History students wrote the entries and edited those written previously with medical history grounding. We are lifting out topics such as racism in clinical and public health, the unethical treatment of marginalized people, and health equity to produce the StoryMaps and Pressbook on specific student-generated topics. Throughout the process, these two classes have shared their learning, disciplinary paradigms, collaboration on projects, and reflection. Students were encouraged to research more about Henrietta Lacks and topics surrounding the historical context of the time including medical practice and racism. From this research, students were able to creatively portray both written and visual aids for learning purposes. Overall, this course led to a personally and socially transformative student experience.