What are some of the invisible barriers shaping Asian American access to public health? 

This panel brings together WashU scholars Caitlin McMurtry, Darwin Baluran, and Aantaki Raisa to examine how race, politics, immigration, and access shape Asian American health. Moving beyond model minority assumptions, the conversation explores how racialization, structural inequities, and healthcare access shape the health experiences of diverse Asian American communities.

 

Dr. Caitlin McMurty, (Brown School) uses interdisciplinary theories and methods to examine the structural determinants of health and well-being in America, especially among historically oppressed groups. Her current research focuses on the magnitude of political polarization during disease outbreaks, the structural origins of (dis)trust in government and its relationship to gun ownership and medical distrust, and the role of ballot initiatives in health policy and politics. Broadly, her research seeks to understand how public opinion, politics, and government affect health inequities (and vice versa) in the U.S.

 

Dr. Darwin Baluran, (Sociology, A&S) research aims to theoretically unpack and empirically analyze how racialization and racism differentially harm marginalized communities. He utilizes a variety of methods, from formal demography to in-depth interviews, to uncover mechanisms that reproduce racial inequality across various domains of social life, from criminal legal contact to health. 

 

Dr. Aantaki Raisa, (WUSM) is a postdoctoral research associate in Public Health Division of Public Health Science at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine.  Dr. Raisa was originally from Bangladesh and has a PhD in Health Communication with a passion for health equity research. Dr. Raisa has developed an innovative eHealth intervention using virtual health assistants to promote colorectal cancer screening among South Asian immigrants in the U.S.  She has also conducted formative research to understand the cultural needs of the intended population and went to New York City to Florida to collect data from the most diverse South Asian immigrant population possible.