Geneticizing Health Disparities? Health Equity for Racialized Communities and the Promise of Precision Medicine in Canada

FAIN: DOI-299683-24

University of Oregon (Eugene, OR 97403-5219)
Arafaat A. Valiani (Project Director: October 2023 to present)

Ethnographic research culminating in several scholarly articles and a monograph investigating whether precision medicine helps prevent or reproduce health disparities.

This project will ethnographically investigate whether precision medicine can contribute to reducing health disparities experienced by racialized peoples or if it will reproduce such disparities in the genetics-based language of precision medicine. Employing recent insights from the historical study of genetics and postcolonial science studies, this project will trace the processes by which medical researchers practice precision medicine, and deploy the language of this scientific field, as a form of preventative care that addresses health disparities experienced by racialized peoples in Canada. In scholarly articles and a monograph, the findings of this project will contribute to debates within the humanities about bioethics, race and social justice, and postcolonial science. It will contribute to broader audiences including racialized communities, educators, decision-makers in public health discussions through a conference/knowledge exchange, op-eds, social media and podcasts.