The University of Southern California’s Law & Global Health Collaboration advances scholarship and provides monthly lectures and public discussions at the intersection of law and global health.

Virtually all significant global health topics raise challenging legal issues which are better understood and addressed when considered from a multidisciplinary basis. We invite interested students, faculty and staff to partake in a free exchange of ideas and collaboration on these important topics.

Supported by the USC Research Collaboration Fund, Professor Sofia Gruskin, director of the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, leads this collaboration alongside USC Gould Professor of Law and Medicine Alexander Capron and USC Research Professor and Associate Dean of Research Charles Kaplan from the School of Social Work.

Secretariat & Steering Committee:

Take Part

Events

2018-2019 Lecture Series

This academic year the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration is focusing on the intersections of law and global health as it relates to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Following the Collaboration’s work of the last two years first on supporting the health and rights of transgender populations and then on the implications of the Trump administration’s policies, this year’s series brings the two streams together to help us move towards research and action in the area of SRHR. Information about upcoming events, as well as discussion summaries and other relevant documents and links from previous events, are included in the posts below.

2017-2018 Lecture Series

In 2017-2018, the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration fostered evidence-based dialogue and research on the implications of the Trump administration’s policies on select law and health topics. From the local to the global, and from climate change to immigrant health, our speaker series helped to set a research agenda relevant to students and faculty from across USC. Information about upcoming events, as well as discussion summaries and other relevant documents and links from previous events, are included in the posts below.

2016-2017 Lecture Series

The 2016-2017 series introduced issues and challenges that arise at the intersection of transgender rights, law and global health. There were also several additional sessions explored a range of interests, including toxic stress. Information about these events, as well as discussion summaries and other relevant documents, are included in the posts below.

News

Work Output

Background

Details:

For two years, beginning in 2014, an exploratory working group of faculty from across the University established the groundwork for the current collaboration. They began by approaching a single topic—the criminalization of HIV transmission—through a multidisciplinary lens.

The group discovered broad commonalities in terms of content and concerns no matter the topic—the importance of how laws are implemented; public health and societal effects; the use of the narrative in framing reference to law; and the relevance of cultural constructs both in how we conceive research questions and how we understand results.

Minutes

Below are minutes from the meetings that took place during the working group phase.

  1. November 25, 2014—Inaugural Meeting
  2. January 29, 2015—Conceptual and Interdisciplinary Linkages
  3. March 29, 2015—Focus on Criminalization of HIV I
  4. April 14, 2015—Focus on Criminalization of HIV II
  5. September 22, 2015—Orientation for 2015
  6. November 5, 2015—Focus on Aging, Global Health and Law
Working Group

Law & Global Health Working Group Participants:

Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes; Boyd-Judson, Lyn; Capron, Alexander; Cousineau, Michael; Cruz, David; Ferguson, Laura; Finch, Caleb; Garry, Hannah; Gotsis, Marientina; Gruskin, Sofia; Kaplan, Charles; Kumar, Shubha; Lakoff, Andrew; Levine, Peg; Lewis, LaVonna; Mayer, Doe; Palinkas, Lawrence; Peet, Jessica; Renteln, Alison; Rodriguez, Yaneth; Rose, Adam; Samet, Jonathan; Sood, Neeraj; Wipfli, Heather; Withers, Mellissa