Douglass hosts launch of Project REVEAL with Jessica Valenti

Project REVEAL is a feminist data archive assembled by the Race and Gender Equity (RAGE) Lab, alongside Douglass Residential College, the Institute for Women’s Leadership, and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The Project publicly launched last Thursday, with a keynote speech from author Jessica Valenti.

The Project’s mission is to ensure that data surrounding reproductive and public health is not lost or erased by federal and state-level attacks. The acronym REVEAL expands to Reclaiming Erasure, Visualizing Empowerment, Archival Liberation. The Project REVEAL website allows users to search for reproductive health data by specific tags presented with the article abstract.

Two Douglass students who helped lead the Project, Skye and Khushi, spoke to WRSU about their experience and its impact. “A lot of what we cover is very controversial, like abortion and maternal mortality – that data, a lot of people are trying to get rid of it or hide it.,” Khushi said.

“This project culminates what public health really is,” Skye said. “Serving the public, making sure health information is accessible and understandable. I think it’s important to continuously fight the good fight.”

The keynote by Jessica Valenti focused on the importance of the work that blends activism, data, and archiving. Valenti is the Blanche, Edith, and Irving Laurie Chair in Women’s Studies, and runs the newsletter Abortion, Every Day. In the four years since the Dobbs decision reversed Roe v. Wade, she has published almost 7000 stories keeping track of anti-abortion measures.

Valenti stressed the necessity of tracking maternal health issues, despite the proactive effort to dismantle and create distrust of the agencies that provide valuable data. The audience gave her a standing ovation before proceeding to a Q&A.

WRSU asked Valenti about what students can do to combat misinformation surrounding reproductive care. Listen to her response below: