Power, community organizing and mobilization for sexual and reproductive justice with Dr. Lynn Roberts (Episode 7)

Community organizing goes beyond protesting and posting on social media. It’s finding a cause you’re passionate about, joining with other people, and using your collective voices to make a difference. In this episode of the Making Public Health Personal podcast, we share tips for being an ally for social justice, even if you aren’t part of the community most impacted by injustice. 

Our guest in this episode is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Alumni Relations, who also teaches in the department of Community Health and Social Sciences at SPH, Dr. Lynn Roberts. She speaks with podcast host Laura Meoli-Ferrigon about the collective efforts to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, providing strategies on how to get involved with strategies to raise awareness- including storytelling and coalition building. We also discuss how advocates and community organizers in the digital age use strategies informed by the leaders of our past, to empower collective movements. 

Dr. Roberts is an emeritus board member of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. As the co-editor and contributing author of an acclaimed anthology titled “Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique”, Dr. Roberts shares her personal commitment to radical reproductive justice in this episode. She explains how women of color, Indigenous people, the LGBTQIA+ community and many others face historic and contemporary challenges to human rights and health equity, stemming from years of systemic oppression. This is important to her research, which focuses on the intersections of race, class and gender in adolescent dating relationships, juvenile justice and reproductive health policies and practice.

Episode links:

Radical Reproductive Justice: https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/radical-reproductive-justice

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective: https://www.sistersong.net/

Contact & find out more about Dr. Lynn Roberts: https://sph.cuny.edu/about/people/faculty/lynn-roberts/

Download a transcript of this episode: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wk71pztceb9abvm/Episode%207%20transcript.txt?dl=0