FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2023
Media Contacts:
Victoria Alexis
valexis@dillard.edu
(504) 816-4024
Media Contacts:
Danielle Miller
dmiller@dillard.edu
(504) 816-5000
NEW ORLEANS –Dillard University’s Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center (MHHERC) is partnering with Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods (ASITW) to host the Inspiring Health Justice student-showcase on Thursday, April 13 at 5 p.m. in Cook Theatre.
Inspiring Health Justice is a collaborative art-science scholar-in-residence program that aims to bring the arts and public health together to address the region’s long-standing health disparities through creative, cross-disciplinary mentorship, focusing the energy and passion of Dillard art students towards fostering health equity.
This year’s focus is on reproductive health disparities and the intersecting challenges for everyone affected by the issue of reproductive health — particularly Black women — historically, as well as now, in a post-Roe v. Wade world. There will be an art opening and performance titled, “Restoring Humanity: The Fight for Reproductive Justice in a Post-Roe World,” showcasing the work of three Inspiring Health Justice students-in-residence: Tia Green, Olivia Johnson and Gabriel Prewitt.
This is the third year of collaboration between MHHERC and ASITW. During the 2021-22 academic year, Dr. Kristi Anderson worked with Dillard faculty members Dr. Nancy Dixon and Dr. Zhang Wen and Dillard’s Vocal and English students created a program that highlighted the talents and gifts of the students while providing the audience and Dillard community with an understanding of how health disparities and inequities are situated within many of our communities.
During the spring 2021 semester, Dr. Sacoby Wilson worked remotely with Dillard faculty members John Barnes and Keith Morris and four Dillard Independent Study students to create film and art works about COVID-19 and health disparities in the region.
Beginning in fall 2022, Dr. Robert Maupin, professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the LSU Health Sciences Center and associate dean of Diversity & Community Engagement, has been working remotely with Dillard’s faculty members John Barnes, associate professor of Visual Arts, and Ray Vrazel, associate professor of Theater, and three Dillard Independent Study students to create theater and art works about women’s reproductive health disparities.
For more information regarding the student-showcase, contact Dr. Amy Lesen at alesen@dillard.edu.
A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, is one of the leading artistic and academic residency programs in the Gulf South region. The Studio fosters creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in our protected forest on the Mississippi River. www.astudiointhewoods.org.
Dillard University Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center – The mission of the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHHERC) is to take a comprehensive approach to advancing research across disciplinary areas, to enhance and promote coordination and collaboration throughout the scientific community, and to improve the overall quality of health for racial and ethnic minorities. https://www.dillard.edu/mhherc/.
