Mapping "Race": Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research

by Laura E. Gómez (Contributor), R. Burciaga Valdez (Foreword), Dr. Nancy López (Editor)

Researchers commonly ask subjects to self-identify their race from a menu of preestablished options. Yet if race is a multidimensional, multilevel social construction, this has profound methodological implications for the sciences and social sciences. Race must inform how we design large-scale data collection and how scientists utilize race in the context of specific research questions. This landmark collection argues for the recognition of those implications for research and suggests ways in which they may be integrated into future scientific endeavors. It concludes on a prescriptive note, providing an arsenal of multidisciplinary, conceptual, and methodological tools for studying race specifically within the context of health inequalities.

John A. Garcia, Arline T. Geronimus, Laura E. Gómez, Joseph L. Graves Jr., Janet E. Helms, Derek Kenji Iwamoto, Jonathan Kahn, Jay S. Kaufman, Mai M. Kindaichi, Simon J. Craddock Lee, Nancy López, Ethan H. Mereish, Matthew Miller, Gabriel R. Sanchez, Aliya Saperstein, R. Burciaga Valdez, Vicki D. Ybarra

Genres: Race, Research Methods

246 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Laura E. Gómez is a professor of law, sociology, and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters are uneven, as some are really for people deep in the field of health disparities while others are more accessible. Interesting and eye opening reading about how views of race can limit scholarship and not move us in the direction of ending the gap. Good reading.