Professor Jenny Douglas
Dr Jenny Douglas is Professor of Social Justice and Health Equity in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at the Open University.
The key theme unifying her research and activism, is intersectionality – exploring how racism, sexism and other intersecting oppressions affect particular aspects of African – Caribbean women’s health.
She established and chairs the Black Women’s Health and Wellbeing Research Network. She has a long history of community action on the sexual and reproductive health of Black women.
She is a medical sociologist with a PhD in Women’s Studies from the University of York. She was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA, during the tenure of a National Centre for Research Methods Fellowship on intersectionality informed research methods. She was a Plumer Visiting Research Fellow at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford (2022). Jenny was a member of Wellcome Social Sciences Discover Advisory Group (2023-2025). She is an honorary member of the Faculty of Public Health, a director of the UK Public Health Register and a Trustee of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.
Jenny is a member of the Research Advisory Committee of Wellbeing of Women. She is currently leading a Wellcome funded research project on Improving Black women’s health and wellbeing in the UK through the development of an evidence base and is co-lead of The Black Women’s Health Manifesto Collective. She is a member of the Intersectionality Collective, Intersectionality Training Institute.
News featuring Jenny
Rooted & Rising – Episode 1
In the opening episode, Susan Cole and Dr Vanessa Apea set the tone for the series with a powerful call to move beyond awareness of health inequities and towards meaningful action. The conversation centres the realities behind these inequities, including maternal...
