Alicia Fahrner

Alicia Fahrner (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at Northwestern University. Her dissertation examines how racism shapes health and well-being in Germany, where color-blind and post-racial discourses obscure the structural and systemic racism many Black and African-diasporic residents face. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining biomarker data and ethnographic fieldwork, her project examines the relationship between racism-related stress, HPA axis function, and mental health among Black German and African-diasporic communities, with particular attention to how cultural identity and social support foster resilience. Her work is supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Prior to Northwestern, Alicia ran a consultancy educating healthcare, education, and labor professionals across Canada on anti-Black and Indigenous racism and its health impacts, and created a United Nations award-winning podcast on the history of gynecology, obstetrics, and Black maternal mortality.