Julia Smith

Dr. Julia Smith’s research centres around the social, political and commercial determinants of health, often applying an intersectional feminist lens to better understand health inequities. She is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at SFU and leads the Health and Social Inequities Theme within the Pacific Institute for Pandemics, Pathogens and Society. From 2020 on, she has co-led the Gender and COVID-19 Project, researching the gendered effects of the pandemic across 12 countries, and in British Columbia.

Julia competed in her PhD in the School of Social and International Studies at the University of Bradford, in the UK, before joining FHS as a post-doctoral fellow, focused on tobacco control. Her research has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and US National Institutes of Health, among others. She has worked with government, civil society and global health actors in North America, Europe and Africa, and is deeply interested in the care economy and intersectionality-based policy analysis.

For an up-to-date list of publications by Julia, please see ResearchGate.