What We Do

Signature Research Projects

Preventing Violence on College and University Campuses

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.

California Home Abortion by Telehealth (CHAT) Study

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.

Research

  • ​Database of Gender and Women’s Empowerment Measures
    You can use this tool to find different measures of gender equity and levels of empowerment. The measures in this database have been used in research on a wide range of women's health topics and have been used in domestic and global situations.
  • Transformative Approaches to Gender Justice in Sexual and Reproductive Health
    The CGHJ published a special issue in Culture, Health & Sexuality on transformative approaches to gender justice in sexual and reproductive health. The special issue contains 10 articles starting with the CGHJ’s introduction titled, “Gender, justice and empowerment: creating the world we want to see.”

Education and Student Engagement

  • Internship Opportunities Program
    The CGHJ offers global and local summer internship opportunities to UC students, with guidance from CGHJ faculty liaisons.
  • Graduate Research Fellowship Program
    The CGHJ awards stipends up to $2,500 to support University of California graduate students pursuing internships and fellowships in the areas of gender and health justice. See the 2018 awardees, 2019 awardees, and the 2022 awardees.
  • Student Ambassador Program
    The Student Ambassador Program, led by UCGHI, is a leadership opportunity for students to serve and represent the CGHJ among the student population and larger community.
  • Maternal Health Rights for Farmworker Women
    The UCGHI Center for Gender and Health Justice joined forces with Dar a Luz to harness the power of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address maternal health justice for farmworkers. Read the full evaluation report here that includes farmworker voices from the field.
  • Women’s Health, Gender and Empowerment online course
    Provides core knowledge and skills from several disciplines on how to improve women's health and well-being globally through an exploration of the interconnected factors that influence women’s health and empowerment.
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights online course
    Online course for undergraduate University of California (UC) students in development to focus on comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Community Engagement

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

  • 2019 Annual Retreat at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center (focus on men, masculinities, and empowerment)
    • Keynote Speaker: Gary Barker, PhD, President and CEO of Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice.
  • 2020 Virtual Annual Retreat - Staying Connected and Empowered at Home
  • 2021 Virtual Annual Retreat - Gender Inequality and Women's Resiliency Across the Globe
    • Keynote Speaker: Michele Goodwin, JD, Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Irvine
  • 2022 Annual Retreat at the Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds (focus on reproductive justice)
    • Keynote Speaker: Cary Franklin, JD, Faculty Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA