Dr Tanisha Spratt

Dr Tanisha Spratt is a Senior Lecturer in Racism and Health. Tanisha obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge in 2019, before completing postdoctoral research in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford (2019-2021). Tanisha then joined the University of Greenwich as a Lecturer in Sociology (2021-2023). In 2023, she was a Visiting Research Scholar in the Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW), Princeton University.

Research

• Racial and ethnic inequalities in health
• Colourism, racism and critical race theory
• Racism and mental health
• Social policy

Building on her sociology background and working across literary and cultural studies, Tanisha’s research centres on racial inequalities in health outcomes in the UK and the US.

Specifically, her research focuses on the role of neoliberalism in promoting and sustaining understandings of personal responsibility, deservedness and grievability when it comes to illness, death and dying.

Tanisha is particularly interested in how racism-induced stress can lead to poor health outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups, and how expectations of resilience can further impact those health outcomes. She is also interested in how experiences of social (in)visibility affect racialised groups, and how that often intersects with experiences of mental and physical illness.

Tanisha is currently completing a manuscript entitled, 'Ungrievable Lives: Race, Risk and Responsibility in Neoliberal Societies.' This book considers the role of racialised perceptions of fault in determining disparate health outcomes and mortality rates amongst Black and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK and US.

Teaching

• 6SSHM013 Racism and Health
• 7SSHM605 Critical Global Health