Philosophy of epidemiology
Look at this DAG and feel something: emotion in DAG-drawing in epidemiology research Kate Vinita Fitch* Kate Vinita Fitch
By necessity, directed acylic graphs (DAGs) simplify the rich networks of factors that contribute to health and disease in human populations. In drawing them, epidemiologists accomplish several tasks: (1) coherently distilling the universe of causation surrounding our research questions, (2) identifying strategies to correct bias in our estimates, and (3) transparently communicating the assumptions we made to accomplish tasks (1) and (2) to our colleagues and peers. In closely reading how DAGs are discussed in core epidemiologic literature and considering the contrast between the emotionless and robotic nature of DAG-drawing and the human suffering which they depict, I argue that DAGs serve another purpose. This purpose is to help epidemiologists perform emotional distancing as part of our aspiration or instruction to achieve unfeeling objectivity. Then, in this work, I interrupt emotional distancing by transforming DAGs into works of art and poetry. The works included primarily consist of simplified DAGs centered around carceral epidemiology, which is my area of interest. I have added poetry and images to these DAGs in a format reminiscent of collage. Through these works, I comment on the emotional experience of DAG-drawing, wed the qualitative and the quantitative, and, above all, highlight the tragedy contained in the nodes of these DAGs in order to evoke emotion and feeling in a format where this response is typically suppressed.
