The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Jieun Lee, MSU Geography Alumna and Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Colorado, for the final Colloquium event for the 2022 Spring Semester. Dr. Lee presented "Understanding Intersectionality: Overlapping Burdens--Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Class, and Health Disparities."

Socially disadvantaged populations in U.S. cities face a multitude of inequities associated with gender, race and ethnicity, and income. These disparities, often overlapping, contribute to persistent geographic patterns of unequal access to urban amenities and adverse health risks.

Despite an increasing interest on the social determinants of health and inequities in the public health domain, critical geographical exploration of overlapping disparities remains under-represented in the literature. Moreover, detailed exploration of socially disadvantaged communities characterized by rapid decline, as evident across U.S. Midwest cities, is even rarer.

In this presentation, I discuss two case studies. The first case interrogates transportation inequity in Detroit, MI, by examining travel behaviors, built environment, and intersecting social disparities, with a particular focus on gender. The second case explores public health crises in Colorado, such as COVID-19 pandemic and mental health problems, within a broader spatial context of social and health inequities and population vulnerability.