We commit our research to work toward health care justice in its many forms. We seek to be a center of scholarship, activism, inter-professional collaboration, and community engagement. Our orientation to research is the study of the social dimensions of health, health care, and illness and the implications of these dimensions for clinicians and patients. Our researchers and collaborators include social scientists, clinicians, humanities scholars, health policy experts, and population scientists. We conduct research using community-led methodologies on issues such as health disparities and equity, health and human rights, im/migrant health, work as a social determinant of health, substance use, and individual, community, and structural violence.

Immigrants’ lack of access to health care is a serious national public health problem, with current legislation and policies increasing the fear of immigration status exposure, resulting in limited utilization of health care services. “Anonymous Health” opens with a story of an immigrant in need of health services. The title references both the patient’s anonymity as well as his desire to keep his health condition a secret because of deportation fears. The film ends with information about how to access health care services if you are an immigrant in Texas.

Film Awards:

-Selected for the National Academy of Medicine's Visualize Health Equity pop-up gallery in Washington, D.C.

-Selected for the American Public Health Association's Global Public Health Film Festival

-On permanent display at: nam.edu/visualizehealthequity

Dorothy “Dot” Weaver, 95 yrs old when recorded in 2012, recounts her days on Galveston Island as a child, remembering the Boardwalk and the Bathing Beauties Contest. After hearing her story, the Galveston Island Beach Revue invited Dot to be their Guest of Honor and lead their Seawall Parade in 2013. Ms. Weaver died at 101 years old on July 16, 2018 in her hometown of Galveston. Produced for the Digital Storytelling Project.

This oral history project highlights the diversity of community members in Galveston, Texas by giving participants a 35mm camera, one roll of film, and as few boundaries as possible to show their life during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It culminated in interviews with participants and a virtual screening of the film on the one-year anniversary of the 2020 shutdown.