The Mapping Rural Absences Project

The Mapping Rural Absences project is a collaboration with University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth student researchers. It is an urgent response to the deep structural inequities in our state that were made particularly visible in 2020—and to the less obvious structural inequities in “greater MN” that uniquely impact rural residents’ ability to access education, healthcare, justice, and so many other fundamental rights.

Our aim in this work is to systematically overview the ways that rural community members of diverse and intersectional identities are marginalized in Minnesota.

The information we provide here is intended to serve as a resource for collaborative, interprofessional efforts to address these complex regional gaps. We also hope it will expose more medical and law students to critical rural inequities and, in so doing, contribute to a more informed politics of practice.