2021-2022 Global(HEALTH+LAW) Series

This year’s online events facilitated student and faculty engagement around issues of law and global health, particularly in the areas of self-care interventions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional public online events were handled at the law and global health intersection to stimulate thought on areas of focus for next year.

Global(HEALTH+LAW)

The USC 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 issues for the law, which are better understood and addressed when considered from a multidisciplinary basis. The collaboration invites 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, USC IIGH Director, leads this collaboration alongside Alexander Capron, Scott H. Bice Chair in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics, and Professor of Law and Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine, and Charles Kaplan, Emeritus Research Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Subscribe to the listserv to stay up-to-date about future events and activities.

2021-2022 Lecture Series

Emotional Contagion in Times of COVID: From Fear to Hope

The event featured Dr. Heidi Larson, director of The Vaccine Confidence Project and professor of anthropology, risk and decision science at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Dr. Larson will discussed the power of emotions and beliefs in the COVID response, and how historic and current inequities can fuel fear around mass vaccination campaigns.

The event also featured reactions and commentary from Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, associate dean for community initiatives at the USC Keck School of Medicine, and Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, clinical professor of population and public health sciences at the USC Keck School of Medicine.


(Un)Just Recovery: Addressing COVID-Related Inequalities in Los Angeles

The USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, in partnership with the USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute, the USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation, the USC-Keck Human Rights Clinic, the USC Keck Division of Global Emergency Medicine and the 2021 USC SDG Leadership Academy hosted a virtual panel event highlighting the range of work happening across USC to address COVID-related inequalities in Los Angeles. A panel of faculty and students from across the university shared current work, discussed key issues to moving toward a just recovery in LA.


When Climate is Everything, How Do We Manage the World and Leave No One Behind?

USC IIGH hosted a lecture featuring Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University and adviser to the COP26 climate talks. Dean Kyte discussed the urgent need to decarbonize our economies and invest in our resilience to climate impacts. With a focus on inclusion and addressing inequalities through economic recovery, she highlighted the challenges and opportunities in building the global governance needed to help us live healthily on a healthy planet going forward.

The event was live and streamed online, cosponsored by the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, the Environmental Student Assembly, the USC Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, the USC Presidential Sustainability Working Group, the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, the USC Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHC), and the USC Center for Sustainability Solutions.


From the Global to the Local: Public Health, Poverty Alleviation, Gender Equality and Social Justice

Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, spoke about the work she has done in Chicago and around the world to address the most significant challenges to the health of poor and vulnerable communities. With a particular focus on racial equality and economic mobility, Dr. Gayle shared the initiatives she’s led most recently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including encouraging vaccine uptake in hard-to-reach and hesitant communities and catalyzing neighborhood investment to revitalize disinvested communities.


Why Should Californians Care About Global Health?

USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health hosted a special event with Rep. Judy Chu, U.S. representative for California’s 27th congressional district, and Rep. Katie Porter, U.S. representative for California’s 45th congressional district, who addressed global health representing the values Americans project to the world, our alliances with other countries, and our compassion for all people in their inherent humanity. At a time when COVID-19 has thrust global health into the federal policy spotlight, this event provided an opportunity to explore and affirm the ways in which the health and prosperity of Americans depends on our investment in health programs and services around the world.


Self-Care Interventions for Health and Well-Being

This presentation by Manjulaa Narasimhan (WHO) provided an overview of the new WHO normative guideline on self-care interventions, including terminology and approach, and suggest considerations for implementation. The session included a focus on what self-care interventions means for health systems, how to ensure that traditionally marginalized populations can benefit from them, and why attention to inequalities and human rights must be central to their implementation. The event included commentary from Dr. Peter Redfield, Professor of Anthropology and Erburu Chair in Ethics, Globalization and Development, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; and Dr. Yaniv Bar-Cohen, Co-Director of West Coast Consortium For Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Medicine, USC Keck School of Medicine.