Copley Connects Spring Summer 2024

made her presentations engaging across different audiences at both San Diego Public Library and the University of San Diego. Audiences were at times horrified and surprised, but always captivated. My guests and I spent nearly an hour post event discussing our own experiences and the revelations and confirmations raised by Dr. Strings’ presentation.” – V. Dozier Associate Professor, Education Librarian, and Coordinator of Graduate Student Programs “Due to my research interests in visual communication, I was eager to hear sociologist Dr. Sabrina Strings discuss how artwork and the media have perpetuated anti-fat racist stereotypes of Black women. She traced changing aesthetics within European notions of beauty from once celebrating voluptuous (white) figures during the High Renaissance to denigrating them during an active period of colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. This change in tastes was actually far more harmful, a confluence of the Enlightenment, whereby so-called intellectuals actively established a racial hierarchy. Later in the 20th century, Dr. Strings connects white supremacy to thin supremacy, the myth of the BMI, and details horrific examples of Western medicine using Black people as mere subjects for scientific research.” – Millie Fullmer Assistant Professor, Acquisitions and Cataloging Librarian, and Liaison to Department of Art, Architecture + Art History “Since 2018, Copley Library and San Diego Public Library’s Annual Black History Month and Women’s History Month event has brought many excellent authors to USD to discuss their work. Dr. Sabrina Strings was no exception. Her book is well researched and convincingly argues that fat phobia is deeply rooted in anti-Black racism. Dr. Strings was warm and funny and her presentation made her scholarship on a serious and important topic engaging and accessible. I thought the book’s examination of the history of medicine and the scholarly conversations around weight and health in the medical community was particularly important in showing how fat-phobia and racism are inextricably linked.” – Christopher Marcum Assistant Professor, Head of Access and Outreach Services, and Liaison to Department of History

L to R: Dr. Theresa Byrd , Dean of the University Library; Dr. Sabrina Strings , Professor and North Hall Chair of Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara and our featured author; Misty Jones , Director of the San Diego Public Library

“While I always enjoy the good speakers that Copley Library hosts, the collaborative February 25th Black History Month/Women’s History Month program at San Diego Public Library was particularly intriguing. Copley Library partnered with San Diego Public Library to offer an eye-opening look at the impact of insidious body image ideas that have been perpetuated for the past few hundred years. With an interested crowd at the afternoon event, Dr. Sabrina Strings provided a fascinating history of the origins and consequences of European approaches to female body image. Her research demonstrated that these approaches were rooted in racist constructs, with harm to women of color through persistent and systemic judgment not only by the wider white population but more significantly, by medical professionals. Examining the artificiality of the Body Mass Index as an example of an individual’s health marker, Strings denounced the impact that body image approach in medicine continues to exert on the physical and mental well-being of Black women. A powerful and engaging speaker, Strings left me with much to consider about my own implicit bias.” – Laura Turner Associate Professor, Associate Dean of the Library, and Head of Collections, Access, and Discovery, and Liaison to Department of Music

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