The Center for Gender and Health Justice envisions a world in which equitable gender norms lead to healthy and empowered people, including our University of California students.
We aim to promote justice and scientific advances that reduce gender and health inequities locally and globally. Grounded in human rights principles, our approach is transdisciplinary, action-oriented, and transformative. Through innovative research, education and collaboration, we build and strengthen the capacity of the next generation of leaders in gender and health justice.
The Center for Gender and Health Justice (CGHJ) invites submissions to our Academic Paper Award Program, which recognizes outstanding scholarship that advances the field of gender and health justice.
CGHJ is committed to addressing gender-based health inequities through interdisciplinary research, education, and community-engaged approaches. The Center’s work spans critical areas including sexual and reproductive health, HIV and gender-based violence, digital health innovations, and community-engaged public health research. We welcome papers that reflect these priorities and contribute to advancing health equity and justice across diverse populations.
Eligibility:
Award:
Five selected papers will receive a $500 award
Submission Criteria:
Papers must focus on topics related to gender and health justice. Submissions should align with CGHJ’s core focus areas, including but not limited to:
Deadline:
May 15, 2026
Submission Instructions:
Please submit your paper and a brief author statement to tthomas@ph.ucla.edu
This award aims to elevate innovative scholarship and support emerging leaders whose work advances health equity and justice within California and globally. Please submit papers that have been published with the last two years, student practicum and research deliverables are also eligible for consideration. We look forward to reviewing all submissions.
The Gender and Health Justice Fellows Program seeks to develop a public health workforce with specialized knowledge and skills to address the challenges of our time and create a future where gender and health justice is a reality. Apply by April 30th, 2026!
Volunteers needed for sexual violence study at the University of California!
Sexual violence (SV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) are pervasive problems on college campuses in the United States and globally. The CGHJ’s first signature research project aims to build an evidence-base for California campus sexual violence programs and policies that can be replicated and taken to scale in the US and internationally.
UC Speaks Up is a campus-based violence prevention initiative that began in 2018 as a three-campus research project at (UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara.) Using qualitative research, we project aimed to assess the perceptions of the campus environment related to sexual violence and sexual harassment and explore how institutional and community policies influence students’ lives and experiences. The initiative has expanded to involve multiple research and programming projects across the UC system.
The Global College Campus Violence Prevention Network aims to build global partnerships to ensure college and university campuses are safe and equitable, worldwide. GCVP-N seeks to prevent sexual, intimate partner and dating violence, sexual harassment, and other forms of sexual misconduct on college and university campuses, worldwide. We unite individuals and groups conducting (or intending to conduct) implementation research to inform and advocate for policies, programs, and practices to prevent and improve responses to campus-based violence. We envision all institutions of higher education as environments of learning, safety, respect, integrity, and equity.
The CHAT Study is a longitudinal study following patients of virtual clinics to understand the safety, effectiveness, and acceptability of telehealth for abortion care. This study will help researchers, healthcare providers, pregnant people, and policy makers understand the experience of people using an online service to get an abortion with pills.
The CGHJ holds an annual conference retreat to bring together faculty, staff, students, and fellows from the 11 University of California campuses, and our philanthropic and programmatic partners. The conference retreats aim to raise and discuss cutting edge issues in gender, health and empowerment, and seed new programmatic and research collaborations, which have been successfully funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others.
Past Retreats
“ [Being a Center for Gender and Health Justice Student Ambassador] was truly an amazing experience because I learned so much about sexual assault prevention and how to better support victim-survivors from the experts themselves.”
-Kalani Phillips, MPH, Student Ambassador Alumna
