Working from the inside out: Implications of breast cancer activism for biomedical policies and practices

Much has been written about women with breast cancer: about women's lifestyles and reproductive strategies as possible risk factors for the disease, factors which impede or facilitate women's participation in mammography screening, ways to involve women in treatment decision-making, and women's ability to cope with breast cancer diagnoses. Seldom do these accounts examine breast cancer from the perspective of women with the disease. This essay presents material from an ethnographic study in the United States to explore the ways that women have come forward as informed consumers and activists working to make biomedical practices more responsive to the needs of women with breast cancer. Insofar as breast cancer activists reflect the concerns of a predominantly white, middle class constituency, however, additional questions are raised concerning their constructions of breast cancer and the problematics of treatment.breast cancer activism treatment policy research

A Toast to Dwight Billings: Of Spoonbread and Bourbon

Political Economy in Practice: Career Contributions of Dwight Billings to Appalachian Studies Dwight Billings has contributed to shaping the conversation in Appalachian studies over the past forty years through his academic focus on political economy and his commitment to equity in who’s at the table in that conversation. The presenters will discuss his career contributions as scholar, teacher and mentor, social justice activist, and colleague

[no individual presentation titles or abstracts to be printed]

Note to program reviewers: we do not expect these abstracts to be published, since this is a roundtable, but are providing them so that you can see what we hope to discuss in the session. Dwight Billings will be in attendance, but does not wish to be a formal respondent as part of the roundtable. The first presentation, by the convener, will introduce the roundtable with a quick overview of the facets of Dwight Billings\u27 career contributions to Appalachian Studies being discussed in the formal presentations, a reading of comments sent by those unable to attend in person, and an invitation to those present to consider standing and making remarks after the last formal presentation. (The formal presenters\u27 remarks will be 5 minutes each, leaving time for this.