⭐️ Presented by the Campus Community Book Project (DEI | OCCR) 

Sasha Abramsky, continuing lecturer, University Writing Program and research affiliate, Center for Poverty and Inequality research, draws on his reporting and research for his books "Breadline USA, The American Way of Poverty, Jumping at Shadows" and his three books on the criminal justice system to explore how bodies and minds are quite literally shaped and chemically altered by the stresses of living on the margins. He will talk about how stress lowers life expectancy, makes it harder to hold down jobs, makes it more difficult to function in relationships, and so on.

This session’s learning objectives include:
- Understanding the importance of empathy in interpreting other people's actions/experiences.
- Gaining a better sense of the interplay between actions at a communal and individual level.
- Getting a handle on the large-scale societal forces that help shape the physical and mental health and well-being (or sickness) of individuals.

In 2024-2025, the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project will be reading "Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society" by Arline Geronimus and will feature a year-long program on the theme of health equity and justice. Arline Geronimus is a professor in the School of Public Health and a research professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where she also is affiliated with the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. Fusing science and social justice, Dr. Geronimus’ scholarship explores how systemic injustice erodes the health of marginalized people. Until now, there has been little discussion about the insidious effects of social injustice on the body. "Weathering" shifts the paradigm, shining a light on the topic and offering a roadmap for hope.

Learn more