A packed audience at the Mondavi Center’s Vanderhoef Studio Theatre gathered Tuesday, March 4 for a presentation by Arline T. Geronimus, author of the 2024-2025 selection of the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project, Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society.

In an hour-long presentation titled “Weathering and Health Equity: Social Identity, High Effort Coping, and Joy,” Geronimus described why she created the term “weathering” to effectively “name the structurally rooted physiological process of accelerated wear and tear throughout the body,” particularly on traditionally marginalized communities. Geronimus is a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

“To be ‘weathered’ is to be repeatedly and chronically subjected to the structural challenges and existential insults that our society creates for those who are marginalized as they work to survive or overcome them,” Geronimus explained. 

The ultimate effects of weathering on marginalized communities, according to Geronimus, is that even young community members can be “biologically old” due to the wear and tear of continual exposure to environmental factors. Effects include weakened blood vessels and accelerated cellular damage. 

“Population health inequity,” Geronimus said, “reflects increasing physiological vulnerability over the life course among marginalized groups.”

In this context, weathering is “a natural consequence of maintaining a society that historically has been ideologically organized under the contradictory premises that all people are created equal,” Geronimus said. “Yet where you fit in a hierarchy of human worth and deserving, this is heavily influenced from birth by your skin color.”

Book Project Selection

Weathering is the 23rd title in the Campus Community Book Project. Founded in the aftermath of 9/11, the project promotes conversation around a common subject, sharing all perspectives respectfully, in accordance with the Principles of Community. This document recognizes the right of every member of the UC Davis community to belong, regardless of their beliefs, background or identity.

Campus Community Book Project organizers have identified next year’s book theme as “belonging,” in commemoration of the 35^th anniversary of the first singing of the Principles of Community.  Past book topics have included mental health, gun violence, disability issues, immigration, food insecurity and more. Learn more about the Book Project nominations and selection process.

Inspired Q&A

A question-and-answer session with the audience was facilitated by a former National Public Radio host of Morning Edition, Donna Apidone, who continued the conversation about wrestling with the idea of “constant struggle versus ideal futures” and ideas of self-care embraced by younger generations. Geronimus cited the late writer and philosopher Audre Lorde, who defined self-care as self-preservation and “an act of political warfare,” something that reflects the societal conditions through which Geronimus also approaches her work. 

Several students, faculty and community members in the audience cited Geronimus’ influence on their own work, before asking about ways to navigate public health programming within our current political climate and in the wake of the global pandemic. Her answers reflected an ethos present in the conclusion of her presentation.

“Any social policy decision intended to improve their everyday life,” Geronimus said of communities affected by weathering, “must reflect the lived reality of the people who are meant to be its beneficiaries.”