Laura Ferguson is an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, the director of the Program on Global Health & Human Rights and the director of research at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing health system and societal factors affecting health and the uptake of health services, as well as how attention to human rights can improve health outcomes. She collaborates with a range of United Nations agencies as well as foundations, universities and non-governmental organizations. She is also an associate editor for the journal Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters. Learn more about her research here and follow her on Twitter.

We talk about the social and structural forces that cause harm, such as laws and policies that criminalize sex work and same-sex sexual practices, that limit rights and produce barriers to health care access. Laura shares her experience working on changing these social and structural contexts of discrimination, including engaging judges in conversations with persons who are negatively impacted by laws. Laura details actions everyone can take to create a more just world.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.