Faculty Profile - Rachel Fox
Dr. Rachel Fox
she/her
Assistant Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Email: [email protected]
Office: 136 Niemeyer
Phone: 616-331-8049
Bio
Rachel Fox (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University. Broadly, her research examines the relationship between medicine, public health, and stigma. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she draws opportunistically on fields such as fat studies, science and technology studies, and medical sociology and uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her most recent research project uncovered the ways that pharmaceutical companies and patient-interest groups have used the idea of "fighting weight stigma" to garner support for weight loss drugs. Based on this research, Fox was featured as a weight stigma expert in the documentary The Cost of Losing: The Risks and Rewards of the Weight-Loss-Drugs Boom.
In addition to her more theoretical work, Fox has spent over a decade fighting to reduce weight stigma in healthcare. She has designed numerous weight stigma interventions for health professionals and health professions students, collaborating with Planned Parenthood, the University of the Pacific School of Health Sciences, and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She has advised several medical student capstone research projects and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for Medical Students for Size Inclusivity.
At GVSU, Fox teaches classes in the Integrative Studies major and the Honors College and is passionate about mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers. She is currently advising several projects about weight stigma in healthcare, and is available to advise students undertaking research that critically examines science, technology, and/or medicine.
Before joining Grand Valley, Fox received her PhD in Communication with a concentration in Science Studies and a specialization in Critical Gender Studies from UC San Diego. She holds a BA in Biology from Wesleyan University, an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and an MA in Communication from UC San Diego.
Areas of Interest
Fat Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Feminist Studies/Critical Gender Studies, Weight Stigma, Disability Studies, Critical Media Studies
Education
Wesleyan University, BA in Biology, 2014
Columbia University, MS in Narrative Medicine, 2015
University of California, San Diego, MA in Communication, 2018
University of California, San Diego, PhD in Communication, Science Studies, and Critical Gender Studies
Publications
Basinger, E., Arroyo, A., Asbury, M., Fox, R., Otis, H., Miller, N., Giles, H., & Turner, M. (2025). Dialogue on Difference: Fat Liberation in Communication. Communication Monographs, 92(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2024.2444318
Fox, R., Park, K., Hildebrand-Chupp, R., & Vo, A. T. (2023). Working toward eradicating weight stigma by combating pathologization: A qualitative pilot study using direct contact and narrative medicine. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12717
Fox, R. (2019). Obesity: The Post Mortem: Reviving History and Dehumanizing Fatness via Televised Dissection. Women's Studies, 48(3), 223-245. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2019.1594812
Fox, R. (2018). Against progress: Understanding and resisting the temporality of transformational weight loss narratives. Fat Studies, 7(2), 216-226. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2017.1372992
Reprinted in The Future is Fat: Theorizing Time in Relation to Body Weight and Stigma. 2021, Taylor & Francis/Routledge.