BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Weathering from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Prof. Geronimus and Dr. Miller that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.

Pioneering scientist and public health activist Arline T. Geronimus, Sc.D. first coined the term “weathering” almost 40 years ago to describe the effects of systemic oppression on marginalized people’s bodies—even down to the cellular level. Amid a raging pandemic, environmental chaos, and economic instability, those effects are now felt more acutely than ever. Much like an unprotected house being battered by relentless rainstorms, systemic injustice erodes the body over time, taking a physical toll—often deadly—on Black, brown, working class, and poor communities.

In her groundbreaking new book, Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, Dr. Geronimus, a professor in the School of Public Health and Research Professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, argues that health and aging have more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves. For too long, the public has believed in the concept of a universally uniform growth, health, and aging process in which making “healthy choices” will lead to a long, fruitful life. Yet hard-working and responsible people of color, working class, and poor whites are often propelled onto trajectories of deteriorated health, accelerated aging, and dying well before their time simply because they live in a rigged and exploitative system.

Prof. Geronimus will be in conversation with Doriane C. Miller, MD, Professor of Medicine and the inaugural director of the Center for Community Health and Vitality and the director of Health Equity Integration for the Institute of Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago. The Center for Community Health and Vitality’s mission is to improve population health outcomes for residents on the South Side of Chicago through community-engaged research, demonstration, and service models.

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.

This event is presented by Family Action Network (FAN). Gorton Center is proud to partner with FAN as a sponsor of this event to bring this programming to our patrons.