EDCMA

Description

In a context of persistent inequalities in maternal experiences and outcomes, “diversity” in research is often only thought about at the recruitment stage. In this roundtable discussion, we will discuss how we can embed Black women's voices, methodologies, and knowledges into every stage of research. How can we think and act expansively about “inclusion” in research? How do institutional processes and constraints shape if, when, and how Black women’s voices are heard and prioritised? Our speakers will share from their own experiences as researchers and will discuss embodied knowledge, cultural memories, and liminal spaces in relation to the body as site of racialisation in pregnancy.

This is an in-person round-table discussion.

For information on our speakers, Princess Banda and Anna Horn, please refer to the bio's below.

Princess Banda

Princess Banda (she/ her) is a socio-medical anthropologist who, amongst many things, is primarily a writer, educator, and researcher. Princess is currently a DPhil Anthropology student at the University of Oxford as both a Clarendon scholar and a Black Academic Futures scholar (2021-2025), and is cultivating a research pathway which embraces the intersections and entanglements between socio-medical anthropology, women's health, racial and social justice, and critical qualitative research methods.

Her areas of interest include racial health disparities, socio-structural and political determinants of health, biopolitics, biopsychosociality, maternal health, and non-communicable diseases. Her doctoral thesis aims to explore how obstetric racism is not only a significant risk factor in UK Black women's intergenerational experiences of poor and unequal maternal health, but how it is also a kind of biopolitics which reflects the UK's wider politics of race and anti-Blackness. In doing so, Princess is exploring critical ethnographic and qualitative mixed methods which are rooted in Black feminist politics of sisterhood and ethics of care, ultimately utilising narratives, life histories, and (what she conceptualises as) 'hybrid ethnography' as primary methods.

Anna Horn 

Anna Horn is certified doula and maternal health scholar-activist, currently undertaking a PhD in anthropology of health at the Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research at City, University of London. Anna’s current research investigates Black and South Asian women’s experiences of group antenatal care in the UK through Black feminist and abolitionist perspectives, exploring the group care model’s potential to disrupt colonial legacies embedded within the maternity care system. Furthermore, Anna holds nearly a decade of experience in the maternal, infant and HIV/sexual health fields, ranging from epidemiological surveillance on pregnant women living with HIV to frontline work on a busy National Health Service infant feeding team. Anna has also worked as a maternity service user representative for England’s national Maternity Transformation Programme, co-producing maternal and infant health policies and guidelines.

In addition to her doctoral studies, Anna works part-time as an assistant researcher at the University of Sheffield on the Generation Delta project, aimed at understanding the experiences and outcomes of Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in postgraduate studies among other race equity initiatives in higher education.