Promotora m(other)work in the cracks of the world

Throughout the Americas, promotoras de salud, or Latina community health workers, have long struggled on the frontlines for health, environmental, and economic justice for their communities. In Southern California, the global goods movement is a local phenomenon. Promotora-led asthma education is funded as an environmental mitigation program by the Port of Long Beach.

In this talk, Dr. Faiver-Serna builds from Black and Chicana feminist theory to analyze how promotora grassroots geopolitics counters the spatial imagination and material violence of the Port Authority, and why lessons from promotora praxis are worth paying attention to amidst the global fight for climate justice.

About the speaker

Cristina Faiver-Serna, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor of geography and women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, United States on Penacook, Wabanaki, and Abenaki land and waterways.

Her current book project is tentatively titled Survival First, Health Second: Promotora Pedagogies Rewriting Collective Futures. In it she explores the scalar ecological manifestations and violences of global racial capitalism in Southern California, and the counter-pedagogies and cartographies of promotoras de salud, lay community health workers, whose labor aims to heal their communities and chart pathways toward survival and life otherwise.

Dr Faiver-Serna is a co-founder of the Latinx Geographies Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. Her areas of expertise include critical human geography, Chicanx and Latinx studies, critical race theory, social movement theory, women of color feminist theory, and environmental justice studies.

Booking information

• Advance booking for this event is required. In order to book you will need an account on our website. If you already have an account you will be prompted to log in when you click 'book now'. Please create an account if you do not have one yet (you do not need to be a member of the Society to create an account).
• This event will be held on Zoom and joining instructions will be included in your confirmation email.

If you have any questions or require assistance with your booking, please email events@rgs.org