Susan Sered's Posts from Cancer Land
On June 13, 2025, “Our Bodies, Ourselves” contributor Susan Sered published a very personal post on her blog. “Beginnings and Endings” revealed her diagnosis with aggressive endometrial cancer on the eve of her 70th birthday. “This is the first in a series of posts in which I plan to share and hope to make real-time sense of my current experiences with endometrial cancer,” she said in the opening line.
In deep admiration for Susan's ongoing “Posts from Cancer Land,” we invited Our Bodies Ourselves intern Brynn Buckley -- one of Susan's students -- to share her thoughts about the fiercely honest series. Brynn writes:
I first met Professor Susan Sered last spring, as a sophomore at Suffolk University, when I eagerly attended her “Death and Dying” class. She shared captivating stories of studying elderly Kurdish Jewish women in Jerusalem, priestesses in Okinawa, and the experiences of criminalized women in the Boston area. I learned that Professor Sered had contributed to both the 2005 and 2011 editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves. I began closely following her blog on women’s health, mass incarceration, and other issues.
Professor Sered’s ongoing series “Posts from Cancer Land” shares her real-time experience with cancer through a sociological and anthropological lens, focusing on the wider context of health and illness in this time of federal attacks on science and medical research, particularly on women’s reproductive health.
Her writing explores the social hierarchy of giving and receiving, particularly how it pertains to healthcare, and the vulnerability that comes with hair loss. She critiques pinkwashing and the commercialization of cancer, including gender-specific marketing for chemotherapy patients. Each post offers profound reflections on identity, cultural and societal constructs, and human experience in adversity. I encourage everyone in the OBOS community to explore her website for more crucial insights.
Professor Sered is taking the time and energy to educate us about health and illness in the United States while facing her own health challenges. I can’t think of many people who have such an unwavering dedication to teaching. Thank you, Professor Sered. You have deeply influenced me.
Susan Sered is a sociology professor at Suffolk University, a social justice activist, and a senior researcher at Suffolk’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, where she directs the Women and Incarceration Project.