Expert workshop - Towards racism-conscious health research in Europe (Theo Cosaert & Marie Meudec)

Background

Racial and ethnic disparities endure in health statuses, outcomes, access to quality healthcare, and determinants of health. The issue gained renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic when global evidence revealed that racially minoritised groups were disproportionately negatively affected by both the disease and the response to it. Health disparities are a key focus of public health efforts, yet structural and systemic racism, an important root cause of these disparities, often remains unnamed and unaddressed.

A systematic search and review was conducted as a Data Hub initiative to assess health research publications on/with racially minoritised groups in Belgium, France and The Netherlands. The objectives of the review were to understand:

1. the terminology used for health research on/with racially minoritised groups, and the operationalisation of these terms;

2. the types of data on race, ethnicity and proxies used;

3. the methodologies employed;

4. the available evidence to promote racial equity in health;

5. existing best practices in research and data use on/with racially minoritised groups.

The collection of equality data plays a vital role in evaluating the health condition of racially minoritised groups and effectively addressing health disparities and structural inequities. However, it is imperative for researchers to address key questions—specifically, the reasons behind collecting the data (the "why") and the methodology employed in the data collection process (the "how")—before embarking on such endeavours. Lessons learnt from our review will be used to reflect on our role and responsibilities as health researchers.

In this seminar, we will introduce the workshop template resulting from our review on recently published health research articles. Drawing on established guidelines at both national and European levels and best practices from the review, we have developed guiding questions as conversation starters on research design, data collection methods, data interpretation and dissemination. Using these prompts, the aim of the workshop is to create a space for health researchers to reflect on the uses of  data on/with racially minoritised groups. This interactive seminar will provide insights into conducting racism-conscious research and effectively using research findings to address systemic racism in health.

Speakers

• Marie Meudec (Outbreak Research team, Unit of Equity and Health) is a white researcher who has no personal experience of racism. From personal and professional experience - a) research on health inequities and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, migratory status, different forms of spatial marginalisation, police racism, etc, b) providing expert court testimony on police racism in Canada and asylum cases in the UK; and c) organising and facilitating anti-racism workshops on whiteness and white supremacy in Canada, Marie has developed a sensitivity to issues of racism and racial justice in the countries where she has lived and worked (France, Canada, UK, Haiti, Belgium).

• Theo Cosaert (Unit of Equity and Health) is a white male junior researcher with no personal experiences of racism. He grew up and was trained in a West-European context (Belgium and the UK), and his academic practice is shaped by these schools of thought. He was trained in sociology and in medical anthropology, and all of his previous work focused on experiences of and barriers to the healthcare system. He tries to centralise perspectives of minoritised groups in his research by listening and by creating space where and when he can do so.