Dr. Tanya L. Zakrison is an Associate Professor of Surgery and is a member of the Section of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery at the University of Chicago. She is the Director of Critical Trauma Research, which explores the connection between interpersonal trauma, critical race theory and racial capitalism.
Since joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Dr. Zakrison has been awarded the Department of Surgery Excellence in Teaching award in 2019-20. She has mentored numerous medical students, surgical residents, graduate students and junior faculty to research excellence, presenting at national conferences and publishing peer-reviewed manuscripts on topics such as intimate partner homicide, homicides while incarcerated, the ethics of concurrent COVID-19 trials, penetrating brain injury and others. Dr. Zakrison has been awarded a Bucksbaum Institute Pilot Grant to develop a Structural Justice Curriculum for trainees in trauma to improve patient care, reduce moral injury and address the structural causes of intentional, interpersonal trauma.
In this podcast, Dr. Zakrison shares how her personal experiences in young adulthood helped her make connections between violence experienced in the United States and global patterns of violence resulting from capitalism and colonial histories. She describes how structural, cultural and social violence causes the trauma-based violence we experience locally, nationally and globally. She describes the incessant gun violence in the U.S., especially affecting schoolchildren, as a critical problem that requires attention beyond making arrests and treating the physical wounds of the victims. Dr. Zakrison points out how we have normalized abnormality in the U.S. through the culture of individualism and social violence. She introduces the concept of “hate” as a public health disease and discusses the importance of deep understanding of history as a means to disrupt cycles of hate. In this broad-ranging discussion, we also explore the importance of medical-legal partnerships and their role in supporting victims of violence, framing them as one methodology for violence prevention as well.
In discussing her work on firearm violence, Dr. Zakrison shared a poignant experience of being told as a scientist in the United States that she was not allowed to ask a particular question, highlighting the contrast between legislation such as the Dickey Amendment and our national ideals of freedom. She recommended building bridges of solidarity, joy, love and communal support systems to counteract the effects of discrimination, exclusion, and hate. At personal level, she encouraged us to use our power to help people develop their human potential so that we can all benefit from the genius that everyone holds inside themselves.
Her works can be found here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28922206
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30484899
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35300858
Bioethics in the Margins 