Search

Check  out  Some  Recent  Presentations!
Selling Stigma: Afflictive Power and Fat Oppression
Presentation for the UC San Diego Science Studies Colloquium
November 2024
Why Debunking the “Obesity Epidemic” Won’t Solve Weight Stigma
Presentation for the International Weight Stigma Conference, June 28-29, 2023
Download the Slides
Fat Oppression is a Feminist Issue: A Case for Feminist Divestment from the Anti-Obesity Assemblage
Presentation for the UC Davis Trans Science & Technology Studies Research Cluster
April 5, 2023

Presentations


2025
  • Fox, R. “The Anti-Obesity Orientation of Weight Stigma Research,” International Weight Stigma Conference, July 6, 2025.
  • Fox, R. “Why Debunking ‘Obesity Science’ Won’t Solve Fat Oppression,” Canadian Sociological Association, June 13, 2025.
  • Invited Series Speaker: “The (Mis)Use of Fat Suffering in Weight Stigma Interventions,” Columbia University Narrative Medicine Volvox Alumni Forum, April 16, 2025.
2024
  • Fox, R. “Selling Stigma: Afflictive Power and Fat Oppression,” UC San Diego Science Studies Colloquium, November 25, 2024.
  • Invited Workshop: Fox, R., Mercedes, M., & Kriete, M. “Training the Trainers: How to Address Weight Stigma in DEIJ Efforts,” the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, March 4 & 5, 2024.
  • Invited Workshop: Fox, R., Mercedes, M., & Kriete, M. “Understanding and Resisting Anti-Fatness in the Age of Ozempic,” Weight Inclusive Nutrition & Dietetics and Weight-Inclusive Dietitians in Canada, February 22, 2024.
  • Invited Workshop: Fox, R., Mercedes, M., & Kriete, M. Global Interprofessional Educational Workshop on Weight Stigma, the University of the Pacific, January 26, 2024.
 
2023
  • Invited Workshop: Fox, R., Mercedes, M., & Kriete, M. “Obesity Elimination Won’t Save Us: A Fat Activist Teach-In for Spotting Fat Oppression,” UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, July 31, 2023.
  • Invited Panelist: “Reimagining Wellness: Confronting Weight Stigma, Fat Phobia, and Advancing Maternal Health,” Georgia Society for Public Health Education (GASOPHE), July 26, 2023.
  • Fox, R., Mercedes, M., Kriete, M., & Payne, B.H. Workshop: “Critiquing Fat Oppression in the Age of Wegovy,” International Weight Stigma Conference, June 28-29, 2023, Denver, CO, USA. 
  • Fox, R. “Why Debunking the “Obesity Epidemic” Won’t Solve Weight Stigma,” International Weight Stigma Conference, June 28-29, 2023, Denver, CO, USA.  https://youtu.be/Oo3IxiCMHN0
  • Invited Presentation & Panelist: “Why Debunking the “Obesity Epidemic” Won’t Solve Fat Oppression,” Philosophical Dimensions of Knowledge Production in The Science Of ‘Obesity’ Symposium, Cambridge, UK, June 22-23, 2023.
  • Invited Series Speaker: “Fat Oppression is a Feminist Issue: A Case for Feminist Divestment from the Anti-Obesity Assemblage,” UC Davis Trans Science & Technology Studies Research Cluster, April 5, 2023.
​ ​2022
  • Fox, R. “Hypothesizing Medicine as the Primary Source of Weight Stigma: Introducing the Medical Devaluation Model,” International Weight Stigma Conference, July 15, 2022, Berlin, Germany. https://youtu.be/z0XBktJlnBc
    • Joint Conference Session: “Medicine, Structural Stigma, and Pathologization: A New Approach toward Studying and Fighting Weight Stigma” with Rowan Hildebrand-Chupp, Katherine Gershfeld, and Corinne Grady
  • Fox, R. “Constructing Weight Stigma without Fat Politics: Entrenching Anti-Fatness in Stigma Interventions with Health Professionals,” Fat Studies New Zealand Conference, July 5-7, 2022, Remote. https://youtu.be/O37bcjosqdg
  • Fox, R. “Constructing Weight Stigma without Fat Politics: Entrenching Anti-Fatness in Stigma Interventions with Health Professionals,” Science Studies Program Conference, April 18, 2022, San Diego, CA.
2021
  • Fox, R. “The Historiography of Fatness is Itself Oppressive,” Science Studies Student Choice Speaker Conference, April 9, 2021, San Diego, CA.
2018
  • Fox, R & Park, K. “Narrative Medicine as a Novel Weight Stigma Reduction Method,” Association for Size Diversity and Health, August 3-5, 2018, Portland, OR.
  • Fox, R. “Obesity: The Post Mortem: Reviving History and Abjecting Fatness via Televised Dissection,” Empowered Bodies Graduate Conference, June 26, 2018, York, UK.
  • Fox, R. “Narrative Medicine as a Novel Weight Stigma Reduction Method,” International Weight Stigma Conference, June 18-19, 2018, Leeds, UK.
  • Fox, R & Park, K. “An Affective Challenge to Fat Phobia in Medical Education," UCSD/UCLA Graduate Student Conference on Culture, Health, and Mind, May 19, 2018, San Diego, CA.
  • Fox, R & Park, K. “Weight Stigma Reduction among Medical Students through Narrative Medicine,” International Health Humanities Consortium Conference: Frankenstein@200, April 20-22, 2018, Stanford, CA. 
  • Fox, R. “Fat Embodiment as Pedagogy,” UC San Diego 11th Annual Graduate Visual Arts Symposium: Sensory Disruptions: Confronting the Primacy of the Visual, March 3, 2018, San Diego, CA.
2017
  • Fox, R & Hartman-Rogers, J. “Emotional Labor and the Affective Performance of Objectivity in Fat Studies,” UC San Diego Science Studies Program Biennial Graduate Conference, May 19-20, 2017, San Diego, CA.
  • Fox, R. “A Hybrid Actor-Network Theory Analysis of the Let’s Move! Campaign,” PCA/ACA 2017 Annual Conference, April 12-14, 2017, San Diego, CA.
    • Panel Chair: Fat Ambivalence and Liminality
  • Fox, R & Park, K. “Weight Stigma Reduction among Medical Students through Narrative Medicine,” Best of Cool Ideas Oral Presentation at the Innovations in Medical Education Conference, February 25, 2017, Los Angeles, CA.  
2015
  • Fox, R & Edmonson-Gupta, N. “Fat & Disabled: The Embodied Experience,” ASDAH 2015 Annual Conference, July 17-19, 2015, Boston, MA.
  • Fox, R. “Fat Temporality and the Fantasy of Being Thin,” IHH 2015 Annual Conference, April 30-May 2, 2015, Denver, CO.
  • Fox, R. “Fat Temporality and the Fantasy of Being Thin,” PCA/ACA 2015 Annual Conference, April 5-7, 2015, New Orleans, LA.
Hypothesizing Medicine as the Primary Source of Weight Stigma: Introducing the Medical Devaluation Model
Presentation for the International Weight Stigma Conference, July 14-15, 2022
Constructing Weight Stigma without Fat Politics: Entrenching Anti-Fatness in Stigma Interventions with Health Professionals
Presentation for the Fat Studies New Zealand Conference,
​ July 5-7, 2022

Guest Lectures 

2024
  • Class Visit: “Anti-Fatness, Embodiment, and Obesity: the Post Mortem,” Grand Valley State University, Embodied, Coeli Fitzpatrick, Julia VanderMolen & Leifa Mayers, November 12, 2024.
  • “Why Debunking the “Obesity Epidemic” Won’t Solve Weight Stigma,” UC Davis First Year Seminar, FYS 003 Love-Weight Relationship: Origins of anti-fat messaging and how to address it in today’s society, Professor Blaine Christiansen and Instructor Sophie Orr, February 29, 2024.​
2023
  • “Constructing Weight Stigma without Fat Politics: Entrenching Anti-Fatness in Stigma Interventions with Health Professionals,” UC Davis First Year Seminar, FYS 003 Love-Weight Relationship: Origins of anti-fat messaging and how to address it in today’s society, Professor Blaine Christiansen and Instructor Sophie Orr, March 9, 2023.​
2022
  • “The Power of Medical Media & the Injustice of Obesity: The Post Mortem,” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 108G: Gender and Biomedicine, Professor Lillian Walkover, November 7, 2022.
2020
  • “Fat People’s Experiences of Time,” UC San Diego Sociology Department, SOCI 135: Medical Sociology, Professor CJ Valasek, July 16, 2020.  
  • “The Saussurean versus the Peircean Model of Semiotics” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 100B: Communication, Culture, and Representation, Professor David Serlin, January 23, 2020.
2019
  • “Fatness and the (Ab)Normal.” SUNY Purchase Art History Department, ARH 4006/5006 Investigating Normal, Professor Elizabeth Guffey, November 25, 2019.
  • “Over-weight: The Story of a Label.” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 100A: Communication, the Person, and Everyday Life, Professor Lilly Irani, November 21, 2019.
  • “‘A Baby’s Photograph is a Stupid Thing’: Eugenics and Family Photography at the Turn of the 20th Century.” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 107: Visual Culture Before and After Photography, Professor David Serlin, November 14, 2019.
  • “Obesity: The Post Mortem: Surveilling Fatness, Inside and Out.” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 100B: Communication, Culture, and Representation, Professor Barbara Bush, August 26, 2019.
  • Obesity: The Post Mortem: Realism, Fatphobia, and Documentary Film Making.” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 103F: How to Read a Film, Professor Caroline Collins, September 3, 2019.
  • “Obesity: The Post Mortem: A Lesson on Fatness, Corpses, and Normalization.” UC San Diego Communication Department, COMM 108D: Politics of Bodies: Disability, Professor Louise Hickman, May 28, 2019.
2018
  • “Weight Stigma Reduction among Medical Students through Narrative Medicine: Using Narrative Medicine Post-Degree,” Columbia University MS Program in Narrative Medicine, Volvox Series, Virtual Lecture, May 9, 2018. 
  • ​“Fat Embodiment, Phenomenology, and Care,” Columbia University MS Program in Narrative Medicine, NMED PS5028 Bodies, Illness, and Care: Perspectives from Phenomenology and Beyond, Professor Craig Irvine, March 21, 2018.

Other Appearances

2024
  • Podcast Feature: Embodiment for the Rest of Us
    • Episode 9: "Fat Embodiment as in Living a Whole Ass Fat Life," December 5, 2024. Transcript available here.
    • Episode 10:  "A Clinically Fat Ass and Passion Projects," December 19, 2024. Transcript available here.
  • Documentary: The Cost of Losing: The Risks and Rewards of the Weight-Loss-Drugs Boom, NBC San Diego, October 3, 2024.
  • Interviewed for: “How News Media Can Prevent Contributing to Weight Stigma.” University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics, July 23, 2024.
    • The sheer number of articles covering the “obesity epidemic” and correlating fatness with negative health outcomes causes harm, some scholars argue. “If everyone in the U.S. saw half as many headlines about the obesity epidemic as they see now, the world would be a much better place,” Fox said.
2023
  • Interviewed for: "Online abuse of Lizzo illustrates connections of body shaming, race and gender," San Diego Union Tribune, June 11, 2023.
    • "If you care about someone’s health, what part of their health do you actually care about? If it’s their blood pressure, then what are you doing to help with their blood pressure? Just take weight out of the equation. For health care providers, weight-neutral care, or fat-positive care that is actually informed by recognizing that fat people are deeply discriminated against and accounting for that in medical care is really important. Just treating people for what they’re seeing you for and treating them like people who deserve health care, who deserve care, period. That’s really important. For people who are not health care providers, honestly, there’s nothing that I would recommend that they can do. I would just recommend that they stop commenting on other people’s bodies. There are so many other public health crises that we are experiencing, pick one of them and you will do more good for the world than you could ever do being concerned for “obesity.” Anything. Work on combatting pollution or gun violence or COVID or a million other public health causes that are so important that would help the world so much more. If you really don’t want to give up fatness as your focus, then you can take up fat oppression as the thing that you want to combat. You can take up fat oppression, or weight stigma, as a public health problem and you can start challenging that."
  • Quoted in: "Paving the Way for the Field of Disability Studies," University of California Global Health Institute, March 8, 2023. ​
    • The future of Disability Studies is bright, and scholars and students across the UC are paving the way for generations of learners to come, combining scholarship and advocacy in revolutionary ways. Rachel sums up the necessity of the field best and leaves us with a question we should all continue to ask ourselves: “I see Disability Studies as the more deliberately scholarly arm of disability activism. One of the principles of disability justice is that everyone deserves a life with dignity. Disability is part of natural human variation, and although it may include bodily impairments, often those impairments are dramatically worsened by a world unwilling to accommodate them. I see Disability Studies partially as the project of documenting what gets in the way of a world where disabled people are treated well. How are disabled people being kept from the resources and accommodations that would benefit them, and why?”
2021
  • Quoted in: "Where to Turn When Social Media Worsens Body Image Issues," Consumer Reports, November 2021. ​My recommendation on how to help when struggling with body image: 
    • ​​“Surround yourself with people who affirm your value and don’t ask you to change in order to be worthy of their affection, as much as you’re able!” says Rachel Fox, a fat-studies scholar and PhD candidate at UC San Diego who proudly calls herself fat. “Look at as many kinds of bodies as you can” to remind you that the skinny ones aren’t the only ones, says Fox, who is also the lead author of a paper called Working Toward Eradicating Weight Stigma by Combating Pathologization, which was published last year in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
2017 2016 2014
  • Essay covered by NPR Cosmos & Culture: Commentary on Science and Society: A Fresh Cry Of Pain: Fat-Shaming In Science​
    • When people — women, often — are seen and judged primarily by their weight instead of by their talents and actions in the world, the result is often incredibly hurtful. None of us wants to be seen and judged so superficially. Now there's a fresh cry of pain and it comes again from the world of science and higher education. On Tuesday, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a column by Rachel Fox titled "Too Fat to Be a Scientist?" Weeks ago, Fox earned her B.A. in biology from Wesleyan University. She has decided to leave science for reasons directly related to fat-shaming.
Proudly powered by Weebly