The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Elijah Watson, MA
PhD/MPH Candidate in
Anthropology and Epidemiology
Northwestern University
Social Epidemiology and the Stories Bodies Tell: How Prenatal Exposure to the 1983–86 Philippine Crisis Became Embodied Across the Life Course
Social epidemiologist Nancy Krieger argues that bodies hold “embodied truths,” revealing stories that individuals may not—or cannot—fully narrate themselves. This talk uses that insight to examine how the 1983–86 Philippine political–economic crisis under the Marcos dictatorship became biologically embodied from gestation through midlife. Because the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey began enrolling pregnant women just weeks before the assassination of opposition leader Ninoy Aquino—a catalytic event that precipitated rapid economic deterioration—some children were born before the crisis intensified while others experienced it in utero, creating exogenous variation in the timing of prenatal stress signals. As economic conditions deteriorated after birth—reflected in population-level declines in healthful infant feeding behaviors—the setting offers a rare opportunity to test whether prenatal stress acts as an adaptive cue, calibrating physiology in ways that help or hinder individuals depending on how well in utero expectations match later environments. Using four decades of longitudinal epidemiological and biomarker data, I trace how these early signals were taken up biologically and how their effects unfolded across the life course. More broadly, the work shows how bodies function as historical archives, encoding social upheaval and revealing the mechanisms through which crises become patterned in health across generations.
This lecture is open to the public and will be held in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior St), Chicago Campus. For those outside the Chicago area and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, a Zoom option is also available.
Only Zoom attendees are required to register
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Cost: free - only Zoom attendees are required to register
