Issue date: 7/6/09 Section: News

Professor Tasha Dubriwny says her mother's battle with breast cancer is part of the inspiration for her career. [Click to enlarge]

Fifty years ago, women's health topics were rarely discussed in popular media. Postpartum depression, cervical problems or something on breast cancer? Not likely.

But now with ample public information available on women's health, Texas A&M educator Tasha Dubriwny wants to know how issues are being portrayed and what it is that's being said.

The answers are both personal and professional for Dubriwny. She grew up in a house filled with conversation about the medical world, thanks to her mom, a psychiatric nurse, and father, a psychiatrist.

Dubriwny was surrounded by the medical world from her youth, and as an assistant professor in communication and women's studies, her work primarily focuses on aspects of women's health and communication.

Raised in Oklahoma, she started her college career at the University of Oregon, but returned to her home state where she obtained a degree from the University of Oklahoma in women's studies and met her husband.

Her choice of a major fell into place because of what she called a "click moment" during an introduction to women's studies course when she realized what was important to her.

"It was one of those moments I hope every student has in a college career," Dubriwny said. "It happened for me when we were talking about issues of discrimination, inequality, social structures and power. I thought, 'That's it. That's what matters,' and I never looked back."

Her junior year at the University of Oklahoma, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she remembered it being a scary, torturous year-and-a-half for her family.

Dubriwny's mom had a mammogram that came back clean, but she found a lump doing a self-examination in the shower shortly thereafter.

She insisted her doctors test her again. The new test revealed the cancer.

Walking away with more than a sigh of relief when her mom survived, Dubriwny developed what she calls a "healthy amount of skepticism" when it comes to the medical industry.

"There's just something about the knowledge of our own bodies and not always relying on the experts to tell us what's what," Dubriwny said.

Though her family will never know for sure, the cause of her mother's breast cancer was likely due to the hormone replacement therapy her mother began post-menopause, two years prior to her diagnosis.

Fueled by her mother's bout with breast cancer, she wrote her master's thesis about hormone replacement advertisements and graduated from the University of Cincinnati's women's studies department.

Dubriwny earned her doctorate in speech communication from the University of Georgia and began searching for a job.

Her first job was at the University of South Florida, but it wasn't long before she was looking to move closer to home.

Texas A&M hired her in 2007, putting Dubriwny and her husband nearer to family in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Today, Dubriwny has molded her long-time interest in medicine into a career studying women's health and communication, and hopes to bring light to the public discourse surrounding women's health.

She teaches two classes each semester, in addition to conducting research for a book she is writing.

Entitled "Post Feminist Risk: Contemporary Representations of Women's Health Issues," Dubriwny studies what movies, television, Web sites, advertisements and blogs say about three facets of women's health.

The first looks at stories told by women who have the breast cancer gene, also known as being BRCA positive, and their decisions to have prophylactic mastectomies, meaning to remove their breasts before being diagnosed with cancer. Actress Christina Applegate's story is included in this study, as she opted for this preventative surgery.

The next study revolves around the advertising campaigns for the cervical cancer vaccine known as Gardasil, and how the campaign portrays issues of sexuality and morality in young girls. This issue surfaced recently when Gov. Rick Perry supported a law requiring girls to get the vaccine. This second study looks at the public outcry that caused him to retract his support.

The final section of her book looks at postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis and what has been said about each. Dubriwny studies instances such as the Andrea Yates case, in which Yates drowned her five children due to postpartum depression. It also looks at celebrity motherhood dealing with postpartum anxieties, like Brooke Shields endured.

"A lot of this case study revolves around ways in which psychiatry is being framed as a real science or, if you're listening to Tom Cruise, as a bogus, made-up adventure," Dubriwny said.

Familiar with her work, communication professor Barbara Sharf said she thinks Dubriwny helps bring an understanding to the perceptions of women's health issues.

"She has a very good grasp of rhetorical perspectives and rhetorical theory," said Sharf. "She's bringing that to bear on women's health, and there hasn't been a lot of that done."

Sharf said Dubriwny has a unique perspective and her work will substantially contribute to the health communication field.

University of South Carolina assistant professor Kristan Poirot has worked with Dubriwny on a National Institute of Health grant concerning the public's understanding of genetics.

"She is one of the hardest working people I know, and her book is going to make a great contribution to the study of women's health and rhetoric," Poirot said.

As a professor, one of Dubriwny's former students, senior communication major Emily Heaton, said her teaching methods challenge the students to analyze their surroundings and form their own opinions.

"In her classes, I feel like I truly learned," said Heaton. "She makes it fascinating."

While she didn't always want to be a professor, education was important to Dubriwny, and it is reflected in her passion for both the teaching and researching aspects of her profession.

Dubriwny hopes her research instills a greater curiosity about medical science and generates a willingness to question authorities rather than take expert knowledge as fact.

"Question everything and take nothing for granted," Dubriwny said.

Biography
Influenced by her mother's experience, Dubriwny wrote her master's thesis on hormone replacement advertisements to graduate from the women's studies department at the University of Cincinnati.

Dubriwny then earned her doctorate in speech communication from the University of Georgia and began searching for a job.

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