Tag Archive for: diversity

Behind the Science: Racializied Women’s Physical Pain Dismissal


Interviewee: Negin Nia, B.A., M.J., University of British Columbia, Author/Editor: Romina Garcia de leon (Blog Co-coordinator).

Published: June 17th, 2022

In this week’s Behind the Science, we highlight work done by our current Blog Co-Coordinator at the Women’s Health Research Cluster (WHRC), Negin Nia. She is a recent Master’s graduate from the UBC School of Journalism who specialized in public health. Negin’s final research project in the program sought to examine the intersection between women’s physical pain, race, and treatment in North America’s hospitals and beyond.

Negin did not only complete a literature review but also released an audio documentary covering the lived experiences of racialized women. Her podcast was recently awarded the 2022 Radio Television Digital News Foundation JJ Richards Award. Read more about her project and the lived experience that drove this work. 

Can you please tell me about the work you have done during your Master of Journalism degree? 

For the last year in my program, I decided to focus my journalism specialization on health reporting. This work was driven by my lived experience but also because I believe health impacts every aspect of our lives. 

I did my final research project, which was a combination of a literature review, and an audio documentary on women’s physical pain, race and treatment. There is a lot of research that shows that women, especially racialized women, experience a heightened degree of discrimination, stigma and dismissal of their physical pain because of stereotypes and biases. This is particularly striking as women already experience more chronic pain than men. 

So, the audio documentary explores the lived experiences of many women, including my own story surrounding physical pain, race and accessing treatment across North America’s health care systems. And then the final literature review was more of a deep dive into why this is happening. It included the research in the statistics, whereas the audio documentary was more testimony with facts — they complement each other well.

What led you to pursue this work in the field of health? 

Back in 2020, I had to undergo open-heart surgery for a benign heart condition that I have had my whole life. The situation caught me by surprise because I was an outwardly healthy, 22-year-old. But I had been having a lot of heart palpitations during that year and the doctors kept telling me it was just my anxiety. 

Finally, I got referred to a cardiologist who took such great care of me and took my pain seriously. He scheduled me for an MRI, which is an uncommon test to run for my condition. Usually, it’s an echo scan. The MRI showed more than the echo scan did, that my heart condition had all of a sudden become severe with no explanation. I underwent surgery as soon as possible. 

That experience was super scary and shocking, but I have come out of it a lot stronger — it taught me so much. And just being in the hospital that week, and talking to other people who have been dealing with chronic health issues, really opened up my eyes to the disproportionate dismissal that women, people of color, and non-binary folk face in the healthcare system. 

Do you incorporate the knowledge you gained from your undergraduate degree into what you do now? 

I did my undergraduate degree at UBC in political science and law, and it taught me how to develop my writing skills. I also focused a lot on health policy during my degree. I originally wanted to become a lawyer, but after I started writing for the school newspaper, I realized that I love writing and journalism. 

That degree equipped me for a lot of what I’m doing now in my work at the WHRC, and it also gave me the skills to pursue my master’s degree and the work that has come from it. 

What are your next steps, and long-term goals? 

I’m very interested in pursuing work that’s meaningful, similar to what I did in my podcast. I enjoyed the aspect of sharing stories and highlighting the voices of marginalized and racialized groups — which is my passion. I think that it’s really important to do something you’re passionate about because it shines through your work. 

I’m also currently working at the Women’s Health Research cluster as a Blog Co-Coordinator, which has been amazing because it’s so enriching. Every week when we post blogs, there’s a new topic and I’m constantly learning about women’s health issues and people doing amazing work in the health field. 

How can people reach you and know more about your work?

My Twitter handle is @_neginnia. My podcast is titled “Let’s Talk About: Women’s Physical Pain, Race & Treatment,” and you can find it on Spotify.

Behind the Science: Helping Individuals with Eating Disorders


Interviewee: Amané Halicki-Asakawa, B.A. | Authors/Editors: Negin Nia & Arrthy Thayaparan (Blog Co-coordinators) 

Published: March 25th, 2022

Editor’s Note: This blog post discusses eating disorders. If you or someone you know is struggling, call 1-866-NEDIC-20 or visit NEDIC.

In this week’s blog series, Behind the Science, we speak to Amané Halicki-Asakawa, a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO). Amané is working in the women’s health field with the aim of helping folks with eating disorders. Read more to better understand how her project is helping to create  tangible change, and her advice for IBPOC in the field wishing to pursue research. 

Can you please tell us about your research?

I’m primarily interested in service transformation. So, how to create a tangible change for people in the community, particularly those who live in the Okanagan. 

My research is focused on eating disorders and increasing accessibility to eating disorder services, particularly using things like technology and mobile apps. My research is through the Psychopathology Lifespan and Neuropsychology (PLAN) Laboratory at UBCO. Our lab’s primary focus is on neuropsychology and clinical psychology. The research is really broad, it covers things like stroke research, hemispatial neglect, and also a lot of body image and eating disorder research. 

What are you currently working on?

My master’s thesis is focused on adapting a self-help mobile phone app for use within an eating disorder context. The goal is to provide people with eating disorders who are waitlisted for treatment  an interim service while they’re waiting. The pandemic has increased waitlist lengths dramatically, which were already really long prior to COVID, and so eating disorder treatments are very, very inaccessible for a lot of people right now. The aim of that project is to try to make sure that people have some sort of support, so  that they aren’t being forgotten in the system. 

What got you interested in this research? 

As a woman and being subjected to a lot of cultural issues surrounding thin idealization, I was drawn naturally to  eating disorders. They appear a lot in popular culture, and once you dig under the surface a little bit, you realize that there’s so much more going on that drives these disorders. There is a lot of really serious underlying stuff related to emotion, regulation, identity, all sorts of stuff. So, I think learning about the severity, complexity, and the existing treatment gaps made me realize how important they are to study. 

What impact do you hope your research will have in the women’s health field and beyond?

I really want my research to have a tangible outcome. I think that when participants are involved in your research, you’re asking them for something. They are providing their time and sharing  upsetting, really intense things that they’re going through – especially in mental health research. I just want to make sure that the participants in my studies  are able to get something back. Also, we’re in a transforming world, and technology is becoming so much more accessible and mainstream. My hope with projects like this is to show that there can be ways to access and deliver services that aren’t being used right now. I want people to know that these things can actually fill in the gaps and create a bridge so that people can access the treatments that they need.

As a IBPOC in the science field, what advice do you have for future IBPOC academics wanting to pursue a similar path?

It’s really important to find mentorship in people who look like you and who’ve shared your experiences. I think it can be really helpful to seek out mentors, even colleagues and peers. They don’t have to be the highest members of academia, they can even be grad students who are a little bit older than you are, or research assistants at labs doing research that you are interested in. Being a racialized person in academia   can be very isolating, especially as most institutions lack diversity.   Finding those supports and people who can empathize with your experiences and your specific struggles is incredibly helpful. I’ve sought out many mentors in the past who have helped me and continue to help me,  and without their support it would have been a lot harder than it needed to be.

What is the best way for people to learn more about your work?

Feel free to connect with me through Twitter (@amanekha), and check out our lab website to keep up to date with our research.

Behind the Science: Understanding Nanomedicine


Interviewee: Dr. Hagar Labouta, PhD | Authors/Editors: Arrthy Thayaparan & Negin Nia

Published: February 25th, 2022

With our blog series Behind the Science, we strive to share the stories and amazing work of a diverse range of scientists and academics in the Women’s Health field. The latest feature in our series is Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor at the University of Manitoba’s College of Pharmacy and a renowned nanomedicine researcher. In this blog we speak with her to better understand exactly what nanomedicine is and to learn of her journey through academia as a Hijabi woman of colour. 

Can you please explain what your research is?

My research is in nanomedicine. So, we work with small things called nanoparticles, or small particles. Those tiny particles are very powerful, you can use them to target specific sites in the body that you are not able to do with conventional therapies. You can also decorate nanoparticles with some chemical groups or ligands on top. For instance, those attached ligands could target specific cancer cells. Therefore, there would be higher accumulation at the tumour side and lower accumulations elsewhere, and as a result the patient suffers less side effects from chemotherapies. 

Most of the applications of nanomedicine have been in cancer therapies, but there are lots of other applications that require nanotechnology-based solutions. The focus of my lab is using those technologies to develop safe and effective therapies for the treatment of maternal and fetal disease during pregnancy. More specifically, we design new nanoparticles to carry drugs that are essential for the mother or the baby and we carefully characterize them in the lab as well as evaluate them under conditions that simulate human pregnancy.

How did you get interested in pursuing this work?

My dad, Dr. Ibrahim Labouta, was a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry. I lost him recently to COVID-19 but he was my mentor throughout my entire life, who got me into science. Since I was a child, I wanted to be like him. He was my number one supporter to leave my home country after my master’s degree to pursue a career in Germany, where I got supported by my mentor during my PhD. I was really lucky to be mentored by great mentors, Drs. Labiba El-Khordagui, Marc Schneider, Claus-Michael Lehr and David Cramb, who pushed me into the direction of this research and significantly impacted my career.

In the beginning I was inspired by doing science, and drug delivery was a big thing. When I started my PhD in Germany, I was fascinated by nanomedicine and how powerful this field is. I think we’re now witnessing the glory of this field, millions and billions of people are now receiving the COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna that are based on mRNA lipid nanoparticles.

In 2019, I started at the University of Manitoba with lots and lots of ideas. I got in contact with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), and I started collaborating with Dr. Richard Keijzer and his team to develop a delivery system for a specific microRNA to babies diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia before they are born. That was the first project I did related to fetal health. Now, the main focus of my lab is maternal and fetal health.

What got you into women’s health?

My father got me into science, and he was also very interested in women’s health. When I was working at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, he was working in the Women’s Health Centre and was responsible for several women’s health projects in Africa and the Middle East. So he invited me one day to give a talk there, and so it’s always been in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something related to women’s health. 

The motivation has always been there, especially when I started to go deeper into women’s and fetal health. I started to realise that most applications of nanomedicine are geared towards cancer, which is a really big thing and we have seen several products already in the market. But if you’re talking about helping or using those technologies for women’s health, it’s really an area that is understudied and there are lots of questions that haven’t been answered yet – which is why I want to use my expertise in this area to answer these pending questions.

As a Muslim Hijabi woman, how has it been for you going through the ranks of the scientific community?

Being Hijabi and a woman from a minority, it definitely has been a journey, and  I’m proud to be Hijabi. In general, people tend to respect you when they see how you respect your background and culture. I feel very fortunate to be a Muslim Woman from Egypt. I was also really lucky to work in labs where many were inclusive. But there were definitely some people who were discriminating. Nevertheless I just kept going, and currently I’m a faculty member and a Hijabi. I hope this inspires other people who are Hijabi, non-Hijabi, minorities, or females, who are looking to build their career in academia. I hope I can send them a message that this is possible, I hope their route is now easier than mine. Just to add to that, I want to also emphasise that having a family doesn’t mean you can’t be a professor. I have a loving husband and two kids who made me better in many different ways. Everything is possible; academia is not really limited to a specific population or stereotype of a scientist. 

Behind The Science With Dr. Robert-Paul Juster

Authors: Arrthy Thayaparan and Alex Lukey (Blog Coordinators) 

Published: June 4th, 2021

Interviewee: Dr. Robert-Paul Juster, PhD, University of Montreal 

For this month’s Behind the Science feature, we spoke with Dr. Rober-Paul Juster, an assistant research professor in the department of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Montreal.

As Dr. Juster is a proud member and advocate for research with the LGBTQ2S+ community, we discussed the challenges faced by this community in the sciences. In honour of Pride month, we hope that these discussions bring to light the challenges faced by queer and gender diverse communities.

Additionally, we talked about Dr. Juster’s work on sex and gender research to understand the effects of stress and adversity. He is currently conducting an ongoing survey of COVID-19 that focuses on sex and gender. If you are interested in learning more or participating in his work, check this link out. 

But without further ado, we introduce Dr. Juster…

How did you get into the sex and gender research field?

The first scientific project that I was involved in looked at sex differences in cognition, which was something I was learning in a class at the time. Then I remembered learning about gender roles, masculinity, and femininity in another class. I just sort of put them all together and was particularly interested in the LGBTQ2S+ community. I ignored these interests a bit during my master’s. But then, in my PhD, I had the opportunity again to revisit and look into them further. 

I’m a gay man. So I think the best research often has a personal meaning to the person. I think we can debate whether that makes us purely objective, but I think I had a real desire to contribute to the community and engage in activism through my science. So I think that was always sort of there in my mind, that I wanted to be involved through science. And it so happened that that’s probably been one of the most interesting and fruitful parts of my career so far.

Why is it important to have research that focuses on and includes diverse communities like the LGBTQ2S+ community?

That’s a great question. I think underrepresentation is something that we talk about not just in the field of sex and gender. More broadly, there is still so little research tat has been done with consideration of women. I’ve always felt a real alliance with women, in particular. I think gay men and heterosexual cisgender women have a pretty interesting alliance. My dedication to advancing research and especially health research among the LGBTQ2S+ community is really focused on the desire to really represent better. I think representation is really the most important thing for my research.

Is there enough representation of the LGBTQ2S+ community within the sciences?

I don’t think so, especially for trans and/or non-binary people. I think there’s not a sufficient amount of representation. It’s something new as an ally, I can do my best to lend my interest and my research focus to these and other underrepresented communities. But I feel like so many areas that have not received sufficient representation in science and health research are often the ignored people of those communities. 

So I think there is a slowly growing number of people from the LGBTQ2S+ community represented in academia and in STEM. But I think there’s always more that’s needed. 

I think we talk a lot about equity, diversity and inclusion. More needs to be done to really be aware of that reality and to be sensitive to the fact that even though you’re an ally with an identity that is also marginalized, you can never truly understand the experiences of every subgroup that you’re interested in. 

That’s been an interesting process for me of humility, being really humble and always being aware of the realities of other groups that have not received the same representation. Nor the same privileges. As a white cisgender male, I have a lot of privileges that I think a lot of other groups don’t and it’s important to acknowledge that.

When working with diverse communities, there’s always the potential to create harm when conducting research. How can that harm be mitigated?

Even researchers with the best possible intentions can go into research among a group and not identify their real needs. I think particularly for the transgender and/or gender non-binary communities, there’s been a lot of research that has focused on the origins of difference. Same thing for sexual minorities to try and identify brain regions that are different. This inquiry aims to explain why people are gay or why they’re trans. 

I mean, human beings are curious, and we want to identify the causes of things. But I’m not sure that that research really speaks to any sort of direct needs of the community. Being mindful about what is important to the communities that you want to study and serve is really the essential thing. We can have all kinds of great ideas about research that would be great among the communities that we’re interested in, but it just doesn’t speak to their needs.

And that’s potentially damaging, because there’s no investment of taxpayers dollars to an issue that might not actually be pertinent to the communities that you’re studying. So I think it’s so important to be engaged in participatory research and to really be attentive to the needs of the community and being able to adjust research accordingly.

Can you explain your research to us?

My research aims to understand how men, women, and gender diverse people each have unique health and wellness needs. Beyond binary sex or any kind of focus on categories of groups of people, my work is really focused on the nuance within sex. So trying to identify how things, like sexual orientation, sex hormones, gender roles, or combinations and social economics in relation to your gender, all relates to your health and well-being. 

I’m also really interested in groups that are exposed to different forms of stress and can develop inspiring resilience. What are the things that they do to help minimize their stress? What are the factors that contribute to their protection or resilience to certain conditions? I want to spend my career answering those questions

So studying the LGBTQIA2S+ community, for me, is fascinating because there’s so much gender diversity, and just so much lived experience that is mixed with adversity and resilience. It provides a really strong lens from which to identify how people can become quite tough in terms of facing problems in the future. 

Any last thoughts you’d like to share?

Studying sex and gender research is much more complicated than it seems. Each and every different group combines with other factors like social economics, geography, age, race, and ethnicity, that collectively influence people’s health. We have a tendency, I think the general public and scientists sort of silo off different groups of people. But the bottom line is that every individual has multiple identities that can protect them, but can also affect their health in negative ways, based on stigma and inequalities. The take home message is that allowing groups and subgroups to really express their lived experiences. It’s so important to be attentive, sensitive and engaged to find ways to be an ally. 

You know a lot of the time, people will talk about the transgender community and they’ll be like, ‘Well, you know, [transgender people] only represents one to two per cent.’ That’s still a substantial number of people. And I think there’s a tendency for a lot of the general public, as well as scientists, to sort of dismiss that if it’s a small group of people, then it’s not really going to affect everyone else. But I really argue that you’re all connected. It’s so important to be able to represent all these different groups and to learn from them. Because I think a lot of people that are underrepresented and have been marginalized, engage in very unique and very powerful coping responses that make them resilient. Being able to understand those mechanisms is actually kind of a hopeful message for all. 

And this applies for the rest of society as well. It doesn’t just become about doom and gloom and how society stigmatizes you and your poor health, but more about how you navigate these issues that we’re trying to slowly fix as society progresses, so that we can work on those different factors in the future. In the context of COVID-19, different groups within the LGBTQ2S+ community are engaging in different coping strategies. And while for instance, trans and non-binary people are dealing with a lot of mental health problems, like so many other people they’re also engaging in seeking social supports in virtual ways. In any kind of situation where there’s adversity, people that have faced adversity for reasons of their identity are going to engage in ways that the rest of society can learn from.

Diversity in Academia: Personal Experience & Advice from a Post Doctoral Fellow


Hi everyone! My name is Dr. Travis E. Hodges and I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you and share a little of my personal journey in my academic career. I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where I also did my undergraduate studies. I completed graduate studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario (Canada) in the laboratory of Dr. Cheryl McCormick, and I am now a postdoctoral fellow and Institute of Mental Health Marshall Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Liisa Galea at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada). My current research focus is on sex differences in neural mechanisms underlying cognitive bias across the lifespan, and how these may change under stressful conditions. My long-term goal is to become a professor/primary investigator and establish a laboratory of my own with a research focus on mechanisms underlying the transmission of behavioural and neural function from stressed parents to their offspring, and the role of age and sex in that transmission. I am a member of the WHRC and co-lead of the WHRC Trainee Presentation Series Organization Committee.

During this time of global conversations concerning the rights and academic experiences of people of colour (see #blackintheivory/#ShutDownSTEM for reference) and people of the LGBTQIA1s+ community (see #LGBTQhealth/#QueerinSTEM for reference) I am happy that I was invited by the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) and the WHRC to share some of my own experiences and dispense some advice that has helped me navigate through my own academic journey. The experiences that I have had as a gay and black scientist may differ from most in these communities – I feel very fortunate to have received a lot of love and support from my peers, colleagues, and supervisors. But I have also faced obstacles. Before I left Winnipeg to start my graduate studies in Ontario, I was told by family and friends multiple times that it would be almost impossible for me to get a PhD because I was black; I was told by management at a store where I worked during my undergrad that pursuing a Masters or a PhD would be a waste of time because my skills were better suited for packing shelves. Thankfully, since starting my academic journey, all of my supervisors (undergraduate honours, graduate, postdoctoral) have been incredibly accepting and continue to show me nothing but support in all of my endeavors. Additionally, I have been told that I am (and I know I am) an extreme optimist, but I wouldn’t be this positive without my treasured past and present friends and laboratory families. I still keep in touch with my graduate school cohort and watching their efforts supporting the LGBTIQA2s+ community and the Black Lives Matter movement in their respective parts of the world (Canada, US, UK, Europe) bring me to happy tears. Other trainees and past mentees of mine that have become my friends and family have been bright lights piercing through the darkness that has enveloped the current state of affairs across the world. 

However, I would be remiss without disclosing that finding these accepting and loving academic work environments has been intentional on my part with a bit of luck thrown in.  I have sought broad professional advice from past supervisors and done my due diligence by meeting with potential new supervisors and laboratory mates. In contrast to my positive experiences, I have friends that have had horrible laboratory and university experiences that ruined their love for science. Based on both my positive experiences as well as what I have seen around me, I offer here some pieces of advice to trainees who may be facing adversity related to their race and/or sexual orientation either in their laboratory or even directly from their supervisor: 

  1. There are kind-hearted supervisors and welcoming laboratories out there! Do not be afraid to leave your current negative laboratory situation and transfer to a new one. I have close friends that transferred out of negative laboratory situations (one in their second year and one in their fourth year of graduate school) and they both found new laboratories that were a much better fit and less taxing on their mental health. Fit with a supervisor and laboratory is very hard to gauge at a glance, so one of the best things to do is speak with current or past members of a laboratory you are interested in pursuing. Take time to find a good laboratory that fits your ideals not just from a science perspective but also from a positive training environment perspective. 
  2. If negative experiences are progressing in your current laboratory, feel free to ask your fellow trainees about their own experiences to learn more about laboratory culture among supervisors and their labs. Use this information either to find other trainees that may be in similar situations or to determine what laboratory you might feel more comfortable in. Finding other trainees that share even just a couple of your negative experiences will hopefully help you feel less alone and hopefully you can start offering each other social support. Moreover, finding a different supervisor you are more comfortable with at the same university is also useful if you need help navigating reporting bias/discrimination and figuring out how to switch laboratories. 
  3. If you feel like you are unable to talk to another PI about the adversity you are facing, then search for a fellow trainee to talk to for advice – especially a trainee you respect and has shared experience working in a laboratory (e.g., a senior graduate student or postdoctoral fellow). Even though my past experiences were mostly positive, it was my graduate school cohort at Brock University that helped me keep my sanity during the most stressful and uncertain times. So, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have social support. Good social networks are essential in navigating and combating feelings of despair.

To all trainees: whether or not you are currently experiencing adversity in your own laboratory do try to be a friend or a listening ear to fellow trainees that you see are having a hard time. This can make a big difference in the laboratory environment experience for everyone involved and especially for trainees that are feeling very alone in their situation. 

To trainees of colour, members of the LGBTQIA2s+ community, and all others facing adversity in the laboratory: all of our training experiences are unique, but I really hope that you can find a positive and nurturing laboratory environment (they are out there!). I also hope that you find a cohort of trainees and supervisors that support all that you do. Take care of yourselves, stay strong, and trust in your feelings concerning any situation that you are in.

Sincerely and with utmost love,

Travis Ellington Hodges

PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychology/Psychiatry Email: Travis.Hodges@psych.ubc.ca