Toward Anti-Racist Research Practices in Reproductive and Environmental Justice

Scientific inquiry is essential for understanding phenomena, demonstrating effective interventions, and safeguarding individuals and communities from harm due to ineffective practices. However, research and scientific inquiry are not immune to white supremacy. In fact, the development of scientific methods to study and understand society has historically been intertwined with colonization and the oppression of people considered to be at the margins. For instance, during the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, the coercive sterilization of women of color was motivated by concerns from policymakers, the federal government, and medical researchers about the reproduction rates of poor minority women. Similarly, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved researchers deliberately infecting Black men with syphilis and withholding treatment for 40 years, all in the name of advancing scientific knowledge. Therefore, to dismantle the influence of white supremacy within research and scientific inquiry, it is essential to critically engage with and utilize research methods that confront and address historical biases in data collection, interpretation, and dissemination.

Despite a growing body of scholarship that includes BIPOC voices to advance social justice, significant challenges remain in meaningfully conducting and sharing data with the communities it aims to benefit. To address these challenges, researchers have turned to community engagement and empowerment methods that offer opportunities for individuals in communities to engage and offer insights into the research process. For example, community-engaged participatory action research has been implemented to design culturally tailored social work interventions. Additionally, researchers have implemented promotora programs to address medical mistrust and health disparities in communities by including empowered community members committed to supporting their neighbors in improving their health. Finally, Chicana and Black feminist scholarship have incorporated qualitative methods such as testimonios and autobiographical inquiry to recognize, acknowledge, and foreground the complexity and multiple locations of struggles and resistance in communities. Given this growing body of scholarship, reproductive justice and environmental justice are additional useful human rights-based frameworks that can guide researchers toward explicitly anti-racist and liberatory research practices.

This session is designed for researchers, academics, community activists, and students at the intersection of social justice and scientific inquiry, especially in reproductive and environmental justice contexts. This roundtable will critically discuss the pervasive influence of white supremacy in research and scientific inquiry by examining and applying the 15 characteristics of white supremacy to status quo research methodologies. Using reproductive justice and environmental justice as guiding frameworks, we will discuss how these approaches can lead to more equitable research outcomes. Participants will be able to explore and identify ways to apply and advocate for using research methodologies that are explicitly anti-racist and liberatory. Special emphasis will be placed on community-engaged research, community data ownership, and the challenges of centering BIPOC voices in meaningful ways.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to identify at least two research strategies that are explicitly anti-racist and liberatory. Participants will apply reproductive and environmental justice frameworks to social work research. Participants will analyze status quo research methods and how they perpetuate white supremacy.