The microbiome describes the vast microbial ecologies throughout the human body that are fundamental for human functioning and health, for example the gut flora and microbes that inhabit human skin. Influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, the microbiome, to a degree, can be manipulated by human behaviours and is susceptible to social-cultural processes and practices (such as diet, use of antibiotics and exposure to stress). Increasingly, research is exposing the detrimental impacts that systemic racism has on the health of people of colour (POC). While microbiome research is in its relative infancy, the role that racism may have in the development and health of the microbiome has thus far been overlooked.

This workshop will explore how the microbiome may be impacted by racial inequality. To do this, the workshop will first set out a broad context of microbiome research, key areas where the microbiome is being revealed to be a crucial component of human health and what factors affect the development of the microbiome. It will also discuss how social systems that enact racism might impact the microbiome and hence human health. The second part of the workshop will invite participants to think about the relationship between health and race in their communities and their own lives.