Empowerment through the integration of innovative new women’s health technologies, visual arts, and storytelling.
Collaborators: Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies, Health Humanities Lab, Center for Documentary Studies, Nimmi Ramanujam, Deborah Jenson, Wesley Hogan, Gita Suneja, Libby Dotson, Julia Sroda Agudogo, Mercy Asiedu, Fati Abubakar Gangaran, Kristel Black
The Calla Campaign is the creation of a proud team of female engineers, physicians, historians, humanists, global health researchers, and artists. The project’s purpose is to reframe women’s reproductive health through a self-exploration project that educates and empowers women about their own reproductive anatomy and shares findings with the public via a series of art exhibits to raise awareness and promote dialogue.
The Calla Campaign involves (1) woman-centric technology, the Callascope, for self-visualization of the inner vagina and cervix, (2) in-depth interviews of women from different cultures, education and socioeconomic levels, (3) art and storytelling by local and nationally renowned artists. It is being piloted with local women in Durham, NC, USA with plans to expand to a multicultural scale with women in Lima, Peru and Accra, Ghana.
Reflections from a participant who performed self-exploration with the Callascope capture the importance of this campaign, “When I think of female reproductive anatomy I think of that it’s enigmatic, hidden from us physically. We don’t have a lot of external genitalia, but it’s also hidden in the way that we don’t talk much about it. So, this was an eye-opening experience to be able to visualize something that is so intrinsically a part of me that I have never seen in this way before. It was much more personal and fascinating than I expected it to be.”
The inaugural art exhibit will feature the works and quotes of Calla study participants, student artists, and renowned local Durham artist, Saba Taj.
