Decolonization and the Health Sciences

Our third yearly teach-in series grapples with decolonization in relationship to the health sciences. Can clinical medicine and biomedical research be decolonized? What is the relationship between decolonial healthcare praxis and more direct actions to support indigenous communities, such as land back? What are the failings of Western biomedicine and what can we learn from pre-colonial and modern indigenous health expertise to heal all communities? Sessions are led by faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows from UCSF’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Medical School, and School of Nursing in conversation with scholars and community activists in an informal, student-focused setting meant to facilitate student learning and inquiry. We seek to expand opportunities for anti-racist and abolitionist scholar-activism for students in the health professions through collective, student-led curricular development. All community members at UCSF and beyond are welcome to join.