Saturday, June 11, 2022 10:30am-7pm ET | 7:30am-4pm PT
Intersectional Liberation: What is Required of the Health at Every Size® Framework?
The 2022 ASDAH Conference was held on Saturday, June 11, 2022 with over 400 attendees! We plan to be back next year, so stay tuned. The 2022 conference information is below.
Keynote Sessions
Disability Rights and Inclusion Activist
What If I’m Never Healthy? Disability Justice, Healthism, & HAES®
In this conversation I will highlight intersectionality and the ways diverse systems of oppression amplify and reinforce one another, and why centering and prioritizing the approaches of the historically most excluded & marginalized groups is important in developing a disability justice praxis. I will explore how healthism, an ableist concept which situates the problem of health and disease at the level of the individual, is antithetical to a disability justice praxis, but community care is not. I will impart lessons that can apply to our work now and provide a call-to-action that inspires HAES® healthcare professionals & advocates to better care for fat people of all abilities, races, and able-ness.
*We are offering certificates of attendance for this session to support continuing education credit. We are not a pre-approved provider of CEs. Check with your accrediting body to see if sessions meeting requirements.
Speaker Bio
Imani Barbarin is a disability rights and inclusion activist and speaker who uses her voice and social media platforms to create conversations engaging the disability community. Born with cerebral palsy, Imani often writes and uses her platform to speak from the perspective of a disabled black woman. In the last few years she has created over a dozen trending hashtags that allow disabled folk the opportunity to have their perspectives heard while forcing the world to take notice. #PatientsAreNotFaking, #ThingsDisabledPeopleKnow, #AbledsAreWeird and others each provide a window into disabled life while forming community. Imani is from the Philadelphia area and holds a Masters in Global Communications from the American University of Paris, her published works include those in Forbes, Rewire, Healthline, BitchMedia and more. She runs the blog CrutchesAndSpice.com and a podcast of the same name. She currently serves as the Communications Director for a nonprofit in Pennsylvania.
Author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Health, Policing, and the War on the Black Fat
For this presentation, I will detail the ways in which health, policing, and the so-called “ob*sity epidemic” (or war on ob*sity) all function as structures that aid in the continued subjugation of Black fat subjects. From the transatlantic slave trade, to mass incarceration, to growing anti-fat campaigns of the 2000’s, government, media, and science have all colluded to produce violent and harmful realities for Black fat subjects. This presentation will invite attendees into a deeper understanding of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness and will make clear just how much the two are indivisible from one another.
*We are offering certificates of attendance for this session to support continuing education credit. We are not a pre-approved provider of CEs. Check with your accrediting body to see if sessions meeting requirements.
Speaker Bio
Da’Shaun Harrison is a Black, fat, queer and trans theorist and abolitionist in Atlanta, GA. Harrison is the author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, and is a public speaker who often gives talks and leads workshops on Blackness, queerness, gender, fatness, disabilities, and their intersections. Harrison’s writing has appeared in PhiladelphiaPrint, Medium, THEM, Black Youth Project, BET, and other online publications. They have also been featured in/interviewed by The Fader, Everyday Feminism, Buzzfeed, Teen Vogue, the New York Times, and other local and national publications. Harrison served as Associate Editor – and later as Managing Editor – of Wear Your Voice Magazine. Harrison currently serves as the Editor-at-Large for Scalawag Magazine.
Plenary Session
Author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
Fatphobia as Misogynoir: Gender, Race, and Weight Stigma
In this presentation, I will highlight the troubled past (and present) of fat stigma. While many believe that fatphobia is a relatively recent invention, I will underscore the centrality of slavery and race science in its perpetuation throughout the Western world. I will explain how the medical field took up the mantle of anti-fatness as a result of social and cultural shifts in thinking about race and feminine propriety in the early 20th century. I will conclude with an examination of the scientific bases of the so-called “obesity epidemic.” The presentation will be followed by a short Q&A.
*We are offering certificates of attendance for this session to support continuing education credit. We are not a pre-approved provider of CEs. Check with your accrediting body to see if sessions meeting requirements.
Speaker Bio
Sabrina Strings, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. Sabrina has been featured in dozens of venues, including BBC News, NPR, Huffington Post, Medium, Los Angeles Times, Essence, Vogue, and goop. Her writing has appeared in diverse venues including, The New York Times, Scientific American, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Her book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (2019), is an NYU Press Bestseller. It was awarded the 2020 Best Publication Prize by the Body & Embodiment Section of the American Sociological Association. Follow Sabrina’s latest moves at SabrinaStrings.com and on Twitter @SaStrings.
Intimate Conversation Session
Dying to Live: Deathwork & HAES® As Pathways to Liberation
According to the Institute of Medicine, a “good death” is one that is free from avoidable distress and suffering. We know that because of racism, antifatness, ableism, healthism, and other systems of oppression, Black people, fat people, disabled people, and otherwise marginalized folks are often denied a good death. Not only are we denied a good death, but we are often denied a good life, quality medical care, and other necessary components that could foster a good death.
During this panel discussion we will explore 1) the myriad of ways to define deathwork; 2) the connection between the Health at Every Size® framework and deathwork; 3) how to create a world where people with marginalized identities can have a good death; 4) what deathwork can look like in our day-to-day lives and in our social justice organizing; 5) how to process grief and 6) the exciting new possibilities that can happen after the death of antifatness, antiblackness, diet culture, and other systems of oppression. This will be a highly engaging discussion you don’t want to miss!
*We are offering certificates of attendance for this session to support continuing education credit. We are not a pre-approved provider of CEs. Check with your accrediting body to see if sessions meeting requirements.
Speaker Bios
Southern Black Fat Death Worker & Abolitionist
Hunter Ashleigh Shackelford (she/ they) is a Southern Black fat death worker, abolitionist, cultural strategist, multidisciplinary artist, and storyteller. She is also the creator The Fat Census and Ugly AF: An Intro to Desire Politics, and published in the International Fat Studies Handbook. To learn more, go to HunterAshleigh.com
ASDAH Vision & Strategy Leader, Death Doula in Training
Veronica Garnett, MS, RD, CC (she/her) is a registered dietitian, certified culinarian, and aspiring death doula with over 18 years of professional experience in healthcare advocacy. In her role as ASDAH’s Vision & Strategy Leader, she is committed to taking the organization to the next level and ushering in a new era of the Health at Every Size® movement that is truly inclusive and intersectional. Veronica has been featured in Self, Teen Vogue, Blavity, Black Enterprise, Condé Nast Traveler, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Huffington Post, Marie France, the New York Times, and Travel Noire. Veronica received her bachelor’s degree in nutritional sciences from Howard University, her master’s degree in nutrition education from Columbia University, and most recently, her associate’s degree in culinary arts from Hudson County Community College. In her free time, Veronica can be found spending virtual quality time with her family & friends, tending to her growing plant collection, cuddling with her fur babies, and exploring her new home city, Kigali, Rwanda.
Panel Session
From Theory to Practice: The Necessity of Community
M. Scott Peck, author of The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, declared, “In and through community lies the salvation of the world.” Over the past few months in ASDAH and the greater HAES® space, there has been an ongoing conversation about what it means to be in right relationship with oneself and others; what it means to actually be in community with others. There is this knowing that community is important, but there are challenges in defining, identifying, shaping, and nurturing community. During this panel discussion, we will explore community, what it means to be in community, how to move away from individualism toward collectivism and community, and how we can operate from a community care and love ethic. We will also explore community solutions to the issues that have been discussed throughout this year’s conference.
Fat-Positive Registered Dietitian
Speaker Bio
Kimmie Singh, MS, RD, CDN is a self-proclaimed fat Registered Dietitian based in New York City. She is the owner of Body Honor Nutrition, a nutrition private practice that supports individuals to heal their relationships with food and body. Kimmie supports her clients with a fat-positive and anti-oppressive framework and has a special passion for working with people that have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Kimmie is also a sought-after speaker and has presented at several national conferences. She presents on the effects of anti-fat stigma in healthcare and nutrition. Kimmie is a believer in kindness, compassion, and the power of advocacy. Learn more about Kimmie at www.bodyhonornutrition.com.
Nutrition Therapist & Macro Social Worker
Speaker Bio
Ayana is a nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and macro social worker. She is the owner of Truly Real Nutrition, LLC, a private nutrition practice where she empowers clients to give up dieting in exchange for trusting their bodies and tapping into their internal wisdom to break free from internalized body oppression. She believes that weight-centric approaches to health and wellness only serve to exacerbate body image issues, stress, and anxiety which, along with existing as a Black person in anti-Black world, contribute to increased rates of chronic diseases often seen in Black communities. Prior to transitioning to private practice, Ayana owned a community-based nutrition company in Philadelphia where she worked with community leaders and local politicians as a nutrition policy advocate and community nutrition educator.
Co-Founder of Jabbie App, Author of Fat Girls in Black Bodies
Speaker Bio
Dr. Joy Cox is a body justice advocate using her skill set in research and leadership to foster social change through the promotion of body diversity, equity and inclusion. Receiving her PhD in Communication from Rutgers University in 2018 and being involved in fat acceptance since 2012, Dr. Cox has utilized the past 10 years to amplify the voices of those most marginalized in society, bringing attention to matters of intersectionality, addressing race, body size, accessibility, and “health.”
Closing Visioning Session
Dreaming of New Worlds: HAES® in the Future
Sonya Renee Taylor has said, “Liberation is gonna be co-created in community with other people inside of a liberatory imagination. And if we can be there, then I believe we will win.” During this visioning session, we will be just that! In community with other people inside of a liberatory imagination. As a group we will engage in experiential visioning focusing on what is possible for the future of ASDAH, how the Health at Every Size® framework of care can evolve, and what a world without fatphobia in healthcare would look like. We will close this visioning session with meditation and intention setting. We hope that after this session, attendees will be inspired to take committed action in their daily lives to co-create a free world where everybody wins.
Community Organizer, Educator, and Writer
Facilitator Bio | Lisa Marie Alatorre has over 20 years experience fighting for the abolition of imprisonment, policing, and oppression as a response to social problems and instead shifting towards care, healing, and transformation. She is a fat queer femme of Indigenous, Mexican, and Jewish descent. Born and raised in Peoria, Arizona, she is currently based out of rural Washington state with her partner, toddler, and their crew of pets. She currently works as a part-time lecturer with the Crime and Justice Studies department at UMass Dartmouth and as a consultant. She has worked with many different organizations and institutions around the United States supporting organizations dismantling white supremacy culture and integrating Anti-Oppression, Transformative Justice, Community Accountability, and Restorative Practices into all aspects of social change work.
Misia Denéa
Meditation Leader for Closing Session
Facilitator Bio | Misia (She/They) is a Hatha Yoga and Wellness Consultant who embraces the HAES® principles in her classes, workshops and trainings. She is a licensed facilitator via The Body Positive. She has over a decade of experience in the performing arts and in 2015 was granted a NOLOSE SPAL grant to produce a creative project. She has also appeared in several Bay Area Big Moves productions in California. Misia often collaborates with Arianna Wheat LMFT/Drama therapist and founder of Fat Girls Wanted to lead Healing Arts programs for Fat Femmes of Color. In 2016 she created a short film Bi/Black/BodyPositive/Bliss with the help of the Queer Woman of Color Media Arts Project. She also participated in the 2017 Fat Activism Conference. Misia volunteered on the ASDAH 2018 Portland Conference Committee and is grateful to be of service on the ASDAH Board 2020 -2022.
Moderators
Patrilie Hernandez
Introducing & Moderating What if I’m Never Healthy? with Imani Barbarin
Moderator Bio | Patrilie Hernandez, MS (she/they) has over 14 years of professional experience working in the health and nutrition sector as an educator, advocate, project manager, and policy analyst. She combines her academic background in culinary arts, anthropology and nutrition/health, with her lived experience as a large-bodied, neuroatypical, queer multiracial femme of the Puerto Rican diaspora to disrupt the status quo of the local nutrition and wellness community and advocate for a weight-inclusive health paradigm in educational settings. Patrilie currently works as a public health specialist and nutritionist in addition to being the founder of Embody Lib, a platform that helps people of the global majority reclaim their health and wellbeing. In her spare time, Patrilie likes cooking for others, looking at the moon, and spending time with her partner and her chihuahua.
Jaden Fields
Introducing & Moderating Health, Policing, and the War on the Black Fat with Da’Shaun Harrison
Moderator Bio | Jaden Fields is an LA-based poet, cultural worker, and educator dedicated to cultivating healing-centered spaces for marginalized communities. As a black, queer, trans organizer, Jaden’s work has centered racial justice, gender equity, and violence prevention for the past 13 years. Jaden has facilitated community health programs and support groups, and created intentional spaces committed to healing and wellness. Jaden self-published his first chapbook, Intentional Musings on Staying Alive When I Want To Die (2019), an honest depiction of navigating mental health and systemic oppression, and leaning into his own healing.
Aaron Castillo
Introducing & Moderating Fatphobia as Misogynoir with Sabrina Strings
Moderator Bio | Aaron Castillo (he/him/his) is a student at Brown University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Identity. After taking a class called “Fatphobia and Diet Culture in the United States,” created by one of his peers, he became interested in how Health At Every Size® principles could be applied to food psychology. Originally from Harlingen, Texas, Aaron is Mexican-American and works to include his identity in every aspect of his life. At Brown, he is pursuing an engaged scholarship certificate in “critical research methods” to understand how to conduct equitable research. Aaron is a student in the Program for Liberal Medical Education (PLME) at Brown and hopes to become a psychiatrist studying food psychology, promoting HAES®, and practicing weight-neutral care. In his free time, Aaron likes watching Netflix, baking, and spending time with friends.
Conference Schedule
All times listed in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
10:30am “Registration” (the zoom rooms open)
10:45am Welcome with Veronica Garnett, Vision & Strategy Leader of ASDAH
11:00am-12:00pm Keynote with Imani Barbarin: What if I’m Never Healthy?; Moderated by Patrilie Hernandez
12:15-1:15pm Plenary Session with Sabrina Strings: Fatphobia as Misogynoir; Moderated by Aaron Castillo
1:30-2:30pm Intimate Conversation with Hunter Shackelford and Veronica Garnett: Dying to Live: Deathwork & HAES® As Pathways to Liberation
2:30-3:15pm Break
3:15-4:15pm Keynote with Da’Shaun Harrison: Health, Policing, and the War on the Black Fat; Moderated by Jaden Fields
4:30-5:30pm Panel Discussion with Joy Cox, Ayana Habtemariam, and Kimmie Singh: From Theory to Practice: The Necessity of Community
5:45-6:55pm Closing Visioning Session with Lisa Marie Alatorre: Dreaming of New Worlds: HAES® in the Future; Mediation led by Misia Denéa
6:55-7:00pm Closing Remarks
Scholarship Opportunities
We are thrilled to provide 50 scholarships to the 2022 conference thanks to our accomplice ticket sales! Scholarship applications were due by Sunday, May 22, 11:59 PT. Applicants have been notified.
Join ASDAH
Become a member of ASDAH and support the promotion of the Health at Every Size® and size inclusivity in health.
Become a member of ASDAH and support the promotion of the Health at Every Size® and size inclusivity in health.