Exploring the biological embodiment of historical trauma and migration in South Asian immigrants to the United States of America

My work combines critical theory with scientific methods to better understand human health and strive towards health equity. My dissertation research uses oral histories and molecular methods to explore how lived experiences can be biologically embodied. Specifically, I focus on how historical, intergenerational trauma stemming from the multiple partitions of British India and subsequent migration-related stress impact South Asian immigrants to the United States. Through this project I explore how colonial science continues to impact communal violence in South Asia and the diaspora, use oral histories to discuss how stress and migration operate in intergenerational narratives, and combine oral histories with epigenetic methylation data to understand how historical trauma may be biologically embodied, with a focus on stress, diabetes, and heart disease. I analyzed twenty-five oral histories from the 1947 Partition Archive, a global digital archive focused on preserving oral histories with witnesses of the 1947 Partition. I also conducted oral histories with the generation after the 1947 Partition; I interviewed thirteen South Asian immigrants to the United States whose parents were alive during the 1947 Partition. I am working with the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) to archive those oral histories. I analyzed all thirty-eight oral histories in parallel, focusing on themes that emerged from narratives of stress and migration. To understand the biological embodiment of these experiences, I looked at methylation patterns, screening over 850,000 sites genome wide, in the thirteen South Asian immigrants to the United States that I interviewed. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I developed a successful mail-in method that participants used to self-collect dried blood spots, from which I extracted DNA and RNA. Using the oral histories, I created contextual variables focused on affect, including factors like “expressions of gratitude” and “narratives of intergenerational loss.” I also used the oral histories to adapt survey measures on historical trauma to fit the South Asian context. I characterized associations between these variables and DNA methylation of genes associated with stress response (glucocorticoid receptor and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis function), diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. I found significant association between migration distress, as defined ii by the oral history research and a CpG site associated with atherosclerosis. The goal of the project was to consider how humanistic research can shape our understandings of the body, and to model how we can ask scientific questions differently.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Ecol, Evol, Conservation Biol

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Saboowala, Sana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Malhi, Ripan S
• Hilger, Stephanie M
• Mehta, Rini B
• Brinkworth, Jessica

• Historical Trauma
• Partition
• Epigenetics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Sana Saboowala

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129405

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129405