Research Team

Simone Drake

I am a professor in the Department of English here at The Ohio State University. My research broadly examines black cultural and legal studies in the creative, imagined, and lived experiences of the African Diaspora in the Americas. My interest in this project grows from my research in Black Feminist Theory and Black Women's Studies, as well as my participation in various clinically-focused working and research groups addressing infant mortality racial disparities in Franklin County. You can learn more about me here.

Eric Herschthal

I am an Associate professor of History at the University of Utah. From 2018-2020, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the African American & African Studies Department here at The Ohio State University. My research focuses on race, science, and medicine, and at OSU I have taught several courses on racial health disparities. Trained as a historian, this project has allowed me to place the current crisis in black women's infant and maternal mortality in historical perspective, while also providing an opportunity to share academic research with a broader public.

Website