Brown Day
This year's annual Brown Day Celebration features department research presentations and a poster session, the Ralph H. Brown Memorial Lecture, and a reception and awards ceremony to follow. This year's presenter is Sara McLafferty with the Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Held each fall, Brown Day brings together friends and colleagues for presentations, a lunch, an afternoon lecture by a prominent visiting geographer, and a reception that celebrates the achievements of the past year, and recalls our history, which spans over three-quarters of a century. The day is named in honor of Ralph Hall Brown, eminent faculty member in our department from 1929 to 1948, and author of Mirror for Americans (1941) and Historical Geography of the United States (1948).
Join us for department presentations from 9:30-11am in 445 Blegen provided by:
Swing through Blegen 445 for lunch and check out the poster sessions in the Blegen 4th floor hallway from 12-1:30pm provided by:
The Ralph H. Brown Memorial Lecture will take place in the Honeywell Lecture Hall (L-110) in the Carlson School of Management building at 3:30pm.
Spatial Targeting and Beyond: Geographic Foundations for Public Health Intervention
In this lecture, Sara McLafferty uses geographic concepts, data and methods, recent research provides convincing evidence that the places in which people live, work, and interact strongly influence health, access to healthcare, and well-being. However, the geographical underpinnings of public health intervention have attracted less scholarly attention. Many geographic studies emphasize the value of findings for spatial targeting – directing policy interventions to geographically-defined clusters of high incidence or prevalence. This presentation argues that although spatial targeting can be beneficial, it has key limitations. Drawing on examples from COVID-19 and other health issues, McLafferty analyzes critically the advantages and limitations of spatial targeting as a strategy for public health intervention. She then considers other geographic foundations including geographically tailoring interventions to reflect place and population characteristics and geographically generating interventions through local public participation.
Sara McLafferty, Ph.D is Professor Emerita of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research investigates how the places in which we live and interact influence health, wellbeing, and access to jobs and healthcare opportunities for women, immigrants, and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Her books include GIS and Public Health (with Ellen Cromley), Geographies of Women’s Health (with Isabel Dyck and Nancy Lewis), and A Companion to Health and Medical Geography (with Tim Brown and Graham Moon). Dr, McLafferty received the Melinda Meade Award for her contributions to health and medical geography and is a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers.
The reception will take place in the Carlson School Dining Room (L-150) in the Carlson School of Management building at 5pm. There will be hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar.