Research
Together with Dr. Tonya Haynes at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Barbados, I am currently working on a project which investigates the cultural politics of sugar, race, diabetes and the afterlife of slavery in Barbados. This interdisciplinary project combines feminist theory, social science, historical and arts-based methodologies to define the various aspects that have influenced racialized and gendered risk factors for type 2 diabetes in Barbados and to produce enhanced public health policy recommendations. This work is supported by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).
Learn more about our work -in-progress below.
Together with Dr. Amy Moran-Thomas (MIT) and Dr. Tonya Haynes (University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus), I am developing a related projected entitled SUGAR ATLAS: Counter-Mapping Diabetes from the Caribbean funded by a 2024 ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant.
My first book, Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados (Duke University Press, 2022) examines the (post)colonial, transnational and affective stakes behind the promotion and refusal of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Barbados. Read more about Suspicion in the linked interviews below.
Podcasts
View to the U Podcast. An eye on UTM research. Discussion on suspicion, vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 and the HPV vaccine in Barbados. February 2021.
Raw Talk Podcast, Episode #89 Vaccines: Making History. Discussion on the complexity of vaccine hesitancy in marginalized communities. January 2021
Media
UTM News. “New Frontiers in Research Fund recipients. Sweet Truth.” December 15, 2021
UTM News. DeMarco, Carla. “Lessons we Can Learn from Suspicion in Healthcare.” February 24, 2021.
U of T researcher looks at 'hesitancy' to get vaccinated in Barbados
Office of the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean, UTM: Meet the Profs