Challenging the Status Quo: USC Students Tackle Global Health Inequalities through Cultural-Justice Projects

As a journalist, I have rewritten the article to make it unique. Here’s my version:

Dr. Ans Irfan, MD, EdD, DrPH, ScD, MPH, MRPL is hopeful in the face of challenges to academic freedom and health equity in today’s society. In his course PM525 Culture and Health: Global Perspectives, students are working on projects that focus on creating innovative solutions rooted in cultural-justice to address global health inequities. Through their projects, students are pushing back against the erosion of public health equity progress and promoting the emergence of new public health leaders and ideas.

For their latest assignment, students collaborated on a ‘Global Health Equity & Cultural Justice Case Study’ to identify challenges faced by historically marginalized communities and develop bold solutions through a cultural-justice lens. Projects tackled systems of oppression such as structural racism, patriarchy, militarism, and settler colonialism in communities both in the United States and abroad. Teams received a Culture & Health Equity Scholar designation for their innovative approaches, offering hope in the face of national trends against equity and justice.

Dr. Irfan is proud of his students’ projects which serve as counter-narratives to the current climate. These projects align with the department’s commitment to teach excellence and USC’s mission of teaching knowledge and skills while fostering wisdom, moral discernment, and respect for others. The journalist invites others to read about the highlights of these impactful projects that challenge existing narratives and promote equity in healthcare.