The RESPIRAR Project is represented at IAPHS 2024 annual conference
St. Louis's skyline during the IAPHS 2024 annual conference. Attribution to: Elise Ferrer/RESPIRAR
The RESPIRAR Project was highlighted at this year’s Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri, from September 11–13, 2024.
Since 2015, the IAPHS annual conferences have provided a forum to foster scientific innovation and discovery to improve population health and reduce health disparities. As such, IAPHS is an excellent venue for sharing our team’s work. The RESPIRAR Project pushes the boundaries of research by employing a multidisciplinary approach unpacking the mechanisms shaping and affecting the respiratory health of migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
"This year was my first time attending the annual meeting in person,” said Devon Payne-Sturges, principal co-investigator of the RESPIRAR Project.
“It was unlike any other professional society conference I’ve been to before. There were sessions on racial capitalism, structural racism, power, and historical racial violence. DuBoisian social theory was applied to population health. Every presenter was so sophisticated in their methodological approaches, truly integrated quantitative and qualitative data. I felt right at home and left feeling inspired by the presentations I attended.”
Elise Ferrer, Qualitative Social Science Research Assistant at RESPIRAR, presented her poster, "Expanding historical and archival methods in population health work," at the 2024 IAPHS conference.
During the conference, RESPIRAR collaborator Ellis Ballard presented how his team uses system dynamics “clinics” to rapidly align interdisciplinary community research teams on participatory systems change methods. His presentation emphasized the importance of:
Defining a public health systems problem and question,
Providing hands-on methodological orientation to community-based system dynamics tools, and
Activating a collaborative partnership to design & implement future community-based work.
Ellis explained how the RESPIRAR team employs system dynamics as part of the project and designs community-based workshops with stakeholders from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. During his presentation, Ellis also shared how the RESPIRAR team explored the structural dynamics of migrant farmworker heat exposures as an example of this process.
Meanwhile, RESPIRAR research assistant Elise Ferrer presented a poster highlighting how population health work can incorporate archival research and history. Elise used the RESPIRAR Project as a case study to outline health, housing, and structural racism among migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Maryland. Her poster was well-attended and generated interest in the role of archival research in public health.
This year’s IAPHS conference focused on understanding the drivers of, and potential solutions to, the decline in life expectancy in the U.S. Since 2015, the IAPHS conferences have provided a forum to foster scientific innovation and discovery aimed at improving population health and reducing health disparities.