When strokes strike harder: Mapping and racializing risk in the REGARDS Brain Health Study
Abstract
This thesis explores the operationalization and institutional coupling of race and geography in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study as a valueladen process in which science and society co-produce epistemological conventions about social facts. REGARDS, a 30,239-participant prospective cohort study, contributes to a public health effort to understand why strokes strike harder in the Southeastern US and amongst Black Americans. The reification of racial and geographic disparities as causal mechanisms of stroke mortality exemplifies a persistence in epidemiological research to operationalize constructs into stable, measurable categories. This research examines how scientific facts emerge through networks of social interactions, material practices, and institutional arrangements involved in pinning down causal stories of difference in brain health.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
David Conner
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Sociology
Primary Research Category
Social Science
When strokes strike harder: Mapping and racializing risk in the REGARDS Brain Health Study
This thesis explores the operationalization and institutional coupling of race and geography in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study as a valueladen process in which science and society co-produce epistemological conventions about social facts. REGARDS, a 30,239-participant prospective cohort study, contributes to a public health effort to understand why strokes strike harder in the Southeastern US and amongst Black Americans. The reification of racial and geographic disparities as causal mechanisms of stroke mortality exemplifies a persistence in epidemiological research to operationalize constructs into stable, measurable categories. This research examines how scientific facts emerge through networks of social interactions, material practices, and institutional arrangements involved in pinning down causal stories of difference in brain health.
