Friday, March 4, 2022
3:30 – 5:00 PM
via Zoom
(register here)
Dr. Bhavna Shamasunder
Associate Professor
Urban & Environmental Policy and Public Health Program
Occidental College
Summary:
What can a 10-year long successful struggle to curb oil drilling in Los Angeles and a study of chemical exposures from beauty products used by women of color tell us about the role of community-based research in environmental health and justice? This talk examines data from the Taking Stock Study to consider how research can work alongside environmental justice social movements to address structural inequality and help eliminate environmental health disparities.
Bio: Bhavna teaches and conducts research on environmental health and justice with a focus on the disparate and cumulative burdens faced by poor communities of color. Her active research projects include health impacts from neighborhood oil drilling in Los Angeles; the “environmental injustice of beauty” that considers health disparities for women of color from synthetic chemicals in consumer products; and the types of information (i.e. economic, public health, etc..) used by diverse immigrant communities in decisions to lighten skin and/or use skin lightening products. Her work has been supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, and the National Science Foundation. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, a master’s in environmental studies from the Yale School of the Environment, and Bachelors’ degrees in Biology and Development Studies from the University of California, San Diego.