Rachel Fox

Keywords

Fat Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Feminist Studies/Critical Gender Studies, Disability Studies, Weight Stigma, Narrative Medicine/Health Humanities, Representation, Culture & Semiotics, Qualitative Methods

My research focuses on the oppression of fat people, especially at the hands of medicine and public health. In this research, I have two main objectives: one, to provide detailed descriptions and explanations of how fat oppression works, and two, to find ways to intervene in fat oppression through the practice of valuing fat people, fatness, and fat community. My dissertation, Combatting Stigma, Upholding Pathology: The Untenable Anti-Fatness of Weight Stigma Research and Advocacy, explores the puzzle of how concern for "weight stigma" became co-opted by anti-obesity researchers and advocacy organizations.

• Doctoral Candidate in Communication, Science Studies, & Critical Gender Studies, University of California, San Diego | Expected completion 2024
• Master of Arts in Communication, University of California, San Diego | 2018
• Master of Science in Narrative Medicine, Columbia University | 2015
• Bachelor of Arts in Biology, Wesleyan University | 2014

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Fox, R., Park, K., Hildebrand-Chupp, R., & Vo, A. T. (2023). Working toward eradicating weight stigma by combating pathologization: A qualitative pilot study using direct contact and narrative medicine. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12717

• Fox, R. (2019). Obesity: The Post Mortem: Reviving History and Dehumanizing Fatness via Televised Dissection. Women’s Studies, 48(3), 223–245. doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2019.1594812
• Fox, R. (2018). Against progress: Understanding and resisting the temporality of transformational weight loss narratives. Fat Studies, 7(2), 216–226. doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2017.1372992
  Reprinted in The Future is Fat: Theorizing Time in Relation to Body Weight and Stigma. 2021, Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Book Reviews

• Fox, R (2021). “Fat by Hanne Blank.” Emotion, Space and Society, 38:C, DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2020.100761
• Fox, R (2018). "Why Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra Aamodt." Fat Studies, 7:2, 240-242, DOI: 10.1080/21604851.2017.1369344

writing for a general audience

• Fox, R. (2022, May 17). Valuing Fatness: A Fat Studies Reading List. Pipe Wrench. pipewrenchmag.com/fat-studies-reading-list/
• Fox, R. (2021, November 17). Fat Pain is Not Your Profundity. The Polyphony. thepolyphony.org/2021/11/17/fat-pain-is-not-your-profundity/
  Reprinted by the International Society of Critical Health Psychology ischp.net/2022/05/12/fat-pain-is-not-your-profundity/
• Fox, R. (2021, July 22). An Open Letter to the Well-Intentioned Medical Students Who Want to Do a Capstone Project on Weight Stigma. Medium. medium.com/@rach...1d8f9f
  Reprinted in the Weight and Healthcare Newsletter
  weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/letter-to-med-students-doing-a-weight
• Fox, R. (2014, June 17). Too Fat to Be a Scientist? The Chronicle of Higher Education. www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/too-fat-to-be-a-scientist

Awards:

• UC San Diego President's Dissertation Year Fellowship UC San Diego _ AY 2023-2024
  • Awarded to students who have overcome educational, social, or economic barriers; or whose research or planned career direction focuses on problems related to disadvantaged segments of society; and who demonstrate strong potential, promise and desire for a university teaching and research career.
• Inaugural Junior Fellow Centre for Fat Liberation and Scholarship

2021 – Present

• Democracy Lab Mini-Grant + Stipend UC San Diego Summer 2021
• Judith and Neil Morgan Fellowship UC San Diego 2019 – 2020
  • Extraordinary doctoral candidate in the fields of the Humanities and the humanistic Social Sciences

• Kroner Family Dean’s Fellowship UC San Diego 2016 – 2020
• Narrative Medicine Fellowship Columbia University Summer 2017
  • Weight Stigma Reduction Among Medical Students through Narrative Medicine
• Research Grant Keck School of Medicine Summer 2017 Althea and Fredric Alexander Student Support Fund
  • Weight Stigma Reduction Among Medical Students through Narrative Medicine
• First Year Fellowship UC San Diego 2016 – 2017 Communication Department & Science Studies Program

See Rachel's CV for the most up-to-date list of publications