Latina/Latino studies professor Janett Barragán Miranda was awarded funding from the Campus Research Board’s Multiracial Democracy program for her project “From the Streets to the Laboratories: How the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1982-1984) Impacted the Latina/o/x Community.” The program supports scholarly and creative work related to the critical examination of multiracial democracy.
Her project will study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) that examined the bodies of 16,000 Latina/os. Conducted by physicians, dentists, and nutritionists, it was the most comprehensive survey every conducted on the health of Latina/os. Her project will study the history of HHANES and how it has shaped perceptions of the Latina/o population, particularly the assumption that they are inherently unhealthy—an idea that gained traction during the 1980s.