We are delighted to announce the keynotes for the 10th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, to be held 16-17th June, 2024 in Colchester, UK and online.
Dr Lily O’Hara
Dr Lily O’Hara is an Associate Professor of Public Health at Qatar University. Her research focuses on analyzing oppressive public health approaches to body weight and their inequitable impact on people with larger bodies, and developing ethical, evidence-based, salutogenic public health initiatives for body liberation using social justice oriented approaches. Lily has over 25 years’ experience as a public health and health promotion academic and practitioner in Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar and has worked on community, workplace, university, and school-based programs addressing a broad range of health and wellbeing issues.
Dr Caleb Luna
Caleb Luna is an artist, public scholar and theorist of the body. They are an award-winning educator and scholar, the bestselling author of REVENGE BODY (Nomadic Press, 2022; Black Lawrence Press, 2023), and co-host of the podcast Unsolicited: Fatties Talk Back. Publishing, performing and curating across genre and medium, Caleb’s cultural work examines race, size, sexuality and disability in media and culture. Ultimately, they are interested in engaging embodied difference as a generative resource toward fatter understandings of collective freedom. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Stacy Bias
Stacy Bias is a social justice activist, artist and writer with over 20 years’ experience. Working with academics, researchers, charities, NGOs and other mission-based organisations, she loves combining research with illustration and animation to create humanising narratives that amplify marginalised voices. In 2016, Stacy released the research-led Flying While Fat documentary animation, which highlights the challenges that fat people face when traveling by air. She also works frequently with academics in Health Communications, co-creating sensitive and effective educational resources for both practitioners and the communities they serve. Her practice is collaborative and guided by the principles of intersectional feminism. Stacy’s favourite projects target empathy and the places where it’s absent, asking questions about social legitimacy, barriers to access (both physically and socially) and the psychic and material impacts of exclusion.
For more about our keynotes and their work, please visit our website.