We have used a book  with the title “the Death Gap” written by David Ansell to guide our discussion of health disparities in Chicago and US. We have ordered and arranged the signed copies of the books to distribute. Three students have organized a book club to discuss various issues on health disparties in Chicago and US in four sessions and the powerpoint presentations of these sessions are available below: session 1, session 2, session 3, and session 4. We had a productive Zoom meeting with Dr. Ansell, where we engaged in an insightful discussion on actionable strategies—spanning short, intermediate, and long-term efforts—to help reduce health disparities associated with race and socioeconomic status. Additionally, he shared his experiences collaborating with Chicago city officials during the COVID-19 pandemic to address various health disparity challenges.

We adopted the recommendation by Marsha Rosner to use “A Quantum Life: my unlikely journey from the street to the stars” written by Hakeem Oluseyi. Marsha invited Robert Rosner to facilitate the discussion because Robert personally knows Hakeem and many faculty that mentioned in Hakeem’s book. Robert brought in the context from the perspectives of a theoretical astrophysicist as well as his personal experience about the challenges in his up-bringing in New York city. A robust discussion of the personal experiences from many faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students ensued. Wei-Jen Tang has recommended the book to DuSable museum for their book club discussion, which was adopted. A series of discussion with Hakeem Oluseyi also occurred subsequently (part 1, part 2, part 3, part4). (July 2021)

Faculty of Ben May Department for Cancer Research, Committee of Cancer Biology, and Comprehensive Cancer Center, post-docs, graduate students, undergraduates engaged inaugural DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center visit (Aug 24, 2021). We had robust discussion on various collaborative projects. A few discussion topics were outlined and a series of collaborations have ensued. The event has led multiple BSD-wide interactions with DuSable Museum. A few examples are listed below:

• Black RX to discuss various health-related discussion that Black community is interested
• Annual DuSable museum visit of incoming graduate students sponsored by University of Chicago Division of Biological Science Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs.
• Collaboration between University of Chicago Complemensive Cancer Center with DuSable museum.

Feedback survey for 2021-2022 activity can be found here.

BSD Dean’s Council, CCB CBC, and UCCCC sponsored a visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum on April 5th, 2025. The logistics of this event were primarily organized by Alexis Thornburg. Participants enjoyed docent-guided tours of the museum’s permanent exhibitions, including the Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition and the 3D hologram survivor story. The docent also guided us through “Resilience: A Sansei Sense of Legacy,” which is told from the perspective of third-generation Japanese Americans and explores the impact of Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during World War II. Additionally, we visited the “Voices of Genocide” exhibit, which examines the continuing occurrence of genocide, explores the reasons behind it, and discusses current efforts for intervention and prevention. (See photos and feedback).