Upcoming Events
Every month, year-round, we offer events of all kinds! Our hallmark education events and teach-ins deepen our understanding of health equity, improving access to healthcare, and abolishing weight-centric care. Education events are open to all Health at Every Size® Providers, Advocates, and folks who use HAES in their personal approach to wellbeing. Member events are free to ASDAH members and provide connection and networking to engage with other ASDAH members. We also offer community events open to all – members and non-members – to build relationships and provide programming for those most impacted by fatphobia.
By registering for and attending ASDAH events, you consent to the following community agreements. The agreements can be read in full here.
- This is An Accountable Space
- Engage in Conversation in a Way that Is Inclusive, Generative & Impactful
- Embrace Conflict, Discomfort, Friction, Imperfection, Nuance & A Both/And Mentality
- No Racism, White Supremacy, Anti-Blackness, Anti-Fatness, Transphobia, Queer Antagonism, Ableism, Healthism, Ageism, Classism, or Other Forms of Oppression
- Know That You Will Fuck Up
- Take Care of Yourself
- Stories Stay; Lessons Leave
- Privacy & Confidentiality Cannot Be Assured
- Commit to Self-Reflection & Action When You Leave This Space
ASDAH Conference 2023
DATE & TIME
June 9th & 10th
EVENT DESCRIPTION
We are excited to announce ASDAH’s 2023 Annual Conference that will be held June 9-10 (plus pre- and post- conference sessions!) The theme and focus for our work this year has been Dreaming of New Worlds: Health at Every Size® in the Future. Together with conference attendees, speakers, performers, and facilitators, we will explore this theme with curiosity and hope.
We’re expanding the conference this year to span two days plus breakout sessions (all recorded so you won’t miss soaking up any of the wisdom offered). In support of our desire to make this work collaborative from a truly global perspective, we’re including replays so more timezones can join in with others for live community connection and conversation.
Past Events
Select past events are available to the public on our YouTube Channel. Members have access to even more past events via the Member Portal! Join ASDAH today to access this great member benefit.
Fat Activism & HAES: Advocating for Ourselves & Our Clients in Healthcare Spaces
DATE & TIME
March 24th, 2023 12-2pm ET
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Fat people deserve justice. Access to quality healthcare is a basic human right. Despite what we deserve, we know the reality is quite different. Fat people are often denied gender- and life-affirming surgeries, organ transplants, medical & diagnostic testing, and participation in medical research studies. Providers’ fatphobic attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors often lead to healthcare avoidance by fat people. As fat people it can be very daunting to navigate these situations and advocate for ourselves. As fat-positive providers it can also be daunting going against the machine and advocating for our clients.
This free community event, a collaboration between ASDAH and NAAFA, will highlight the myriad ways both organizations are advocating for change in the areas of governance & policy, education & training, coalition building, and more. Participants will leave with actionable steps they can take to advocate for themselves and/or their clients when navigating fatphobia in our healthcare spaces and systems.
Anti-Blackness and Anti-Fatness: A 201-Level Teach-In
DATE & TIME
February 24th, 2023 12pm ET
EVENT DESCRIPTION
What does a Black fat femme centered future look like? How does it feel? What does it illuminate for you? In this workshop, we will discuss the intersections of antiblackness and fatphobia to think through our varying positionalities in relation to this hopeful future. We will engage experiential activities in this workshop to collaboratively envision a Black fat femme centered futurity that boldly refuses the limits of fatphobia, the weight of antiblackness, and the divisions that hegemony reinforces between marginalized peoples. Using pop culture figures like Lizzo to ground our time, we will consider how Black fat women have been seen as of use for others as an entry point for our engagement with one another.
Finding Breath: Using Counter Narratives to Resuscitate the HAES Framework of Care
DATE & TIME
January 13th at 12pm CST
EVENT DESCRIPTION
This is the second in a three-part series examining the past, present, and future evolution of the Health at Every Size® framework of care. Folks who missed part one are welcome to join this session as well, as each session can also stand alone. In part two, we dive deeper into using counter narratives to refocus our Health at Every Size® work to be by and for those most impacted by fatphobia. We’ll discuss the work ASDAH is doing to reclaim and reorient the Health at Every Size® Framework of Care. We’ll also cover how you can begin using counter narratives in your work today to begin divesting from white supremacist lenses too commonly used in the name of Health at Every Size® like healthism, nutritionism, and marginalizing those at the highest end of the size spectrum.
Beyond the O-Word: Exploring Nuance in the Language of Body Size
DATE & TIME
December 9th at 12pm CST
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Join us for this insightful round table discussion about navigating the nuances of body size terms and language. Susanne Johnson MSN, CRNP, FNP-BC, Family Nurse Practitioner; Ash Nischuk of the podcast The Fat Lip, & Dr. Jonathan Higgins of Nailed It! and Black Fat Femme Podcast bring their thoughtful perspectives to support both new and seasoned Health at Every Size® professionals navigating language around body size. Our discussion will be grounded in frameworks like patient/body autonomy, harm reduction, and trauma-informed care. We will discuss body size terms in various settings, particularly in healthcare and public health. We will explore the nuances of language in one-on-one settings, group settings, and public-facing media like pamphlets, websites, and social media. Most importantly, we’ll discuss language use as it pertains to all larger people, including those who don’t use the word ‘fat’ as a self-descriptor.
From South Africa to Nicaragua: Global Perspectives on HAES
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Due to European colonialism and western imperialism, white supremacist, anti-Black, and anti-fat notions about bodies, food, health, and wellbeing are pervasive across the globe. We know that oppression is universal, but the ways in which oppression impacts people differ based on geographical and social locations.
Frameworks such as Health at Every Size® have emerged to address & combat the problem of anti-fatness in healthcare. However they have been created & promoted from a very American/western/anglophone perspective and context. The Health at Every Size® “movement” itself has perpetuated white supremacy culture. It has not only drowned out BIPOC & fat voices in the west, but also international voices from people of the global majority. This panel discussion will highlight the voices of three HAES-aligned practitioners & fat liberation activists from Africa, Latin America, and the Francophonie.
Please join this lively discussion with Pontsho Pilane, Julia Lévy-Ndejuru, and Mónica Peralta where we will discuss and explore ways that Health at Every Size® is useful, but also fall short in a global context, how this framework of care can transform to be more inclusive of global perspectives, and how we can build coalitions and transnational solidarity as we do this work.
Suffocating Whiteness: A History & Critique of HAES
EVENT DESCRIPTION
We are pleased to be collaborating with Eating Disorder Registered Dietitians & Professionals (EDRD Pro) for our Suffocating Whiteness Series: A History and Critique of Health at Every Size®!
This workshop is the first in a three-part series examining the past, present, and future evolution of the Health at Every Size® (HAES) framework of care. The narratives around Health at Every Size® have primarily been led by white women; disconnected from intersectional social justice movements; and centered white feelings, needs, and priorities. The resulting advocacy and care in the name of HAES has further oppressed people of the global majority (particularly Black people) and superfat/infinifat people. In this session, we’ll discuss the history of the Health at Every Size® framework of care with a particular focus on how whiteness and white supremacy culture showed up in this movement deflecting from radicalness, making concessions in the name of health equity, and impeding fat liberation in healthcare.
State of ASDAH Annual Meeting
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Join us for our highly anticipated Annual Meeting! We are excited to connect with you and discuss our last year of work to improve healthcare for fat folks through the Health at Every Size® framework. This meeting will serve as libation for all we’ve transformed in the fires of freedom. It will also serve as a visioning space for the collective new world we’re building together.
AfroFuturism: Changing the Narrative on the Future of Bodies
EVENT DESCRIPTION
This interactive workshop will give a history of AfroFuturism as well as an opportunity to discuss and work with the ideology of AfroFuturism (context, resilience, futurist ideation) as they apply to the ongoing work of ending fat antagonism. We will also discuss how we envision the ways in which we talk about bodies, examine bodies, and celebrate bodies in a way that humanizes all individuals along a spectrum of the diversity of bodies.
Open Mic: An ASDAH Member Event
EVENT DESCRIPTION
The first event of the 2022-2023 ASDAH board year is a very special members-only Open Mic Event on July 24, 2022 at 1pm CT. This is an opportunity to share your talents with other ASDAH members through spoken word, song, dance, puppetry, and all the other ways you express your creativity in 5-minute time slots. At ASDAH’s 2022 Conference, we announced this year’s theme, Dreaming of New Worlds: HAES in the Future. We welcome members to explore this theme during the open mic or present other areas of interest.
Select past events are available to the public on our YouTube Channel. Members have access to even more past events via the Member Portal! Join ASDAH today to access this great member benefit.
To learn about upcoming and more recent events, click here.