Who we are

We are a team of professors and students at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). We are interested in understanding how public health responses to COVID-19 might better mitigate and address the racial inequalities in health and medicine.

Faculty

 

Claire Laurier Decoteau

Lead Collaborator

Associate Professor, Sociology

University of Illinois at Chicago

I study how governments’ responses to epidemics often deepen economic, racial and gender inequalities. In the past, my research has shown 1) how shifts in HIV/AIDS treatment affects squatter camp residents in South Africa; and 2) how members of the Somali diaspora in North America make sense of the high rates of autism in their communities.

 

Amanda E. Lewis

Collaborator

Director, Institute for Race Research and Public Policy

Distinguished Professor, Sociology and Black Studies

University of Illinois at Chicago

My research focuses on how race shapes educational opportunities and on how our ideas about race get negotiated in everyday life. I lecture and consults regularly on issues of racial and educational equity and contemporary forms of racism.

 

Patrisia Macías-Rojas

Project Collaborator

Associate Professor, Sociology and Latin American and Latinx Studies

University of Illinois at Chicago

 
 

Students

 

Cal Lee Garrett

Project Manager

PhD Candidate, Sociology

University of Illinois at Chicago

My work studies how scientific standards of evidence, data, and measurements can perpetuate inequalities on the basis of race, gender, and sexuality. I ask why scientific fields struggle to produce the social change that scientists often hope to support.

 

Fructoso Miguel Basaldua Jr.

Research Assistant

Graduate Student, Sociology

University of Illinois at Chicago

I am a third year PhD student in the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I study the privatization of public higher education, student loan debt, and racial wealth inequality.

 

Cindy Brito

Research Assistant

Graduate Student, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs

University of Illinois at Chicago