FOCUS
A wave of targeted anti-poverty interventions in the U.S. provides individuals and families unconditional, unrestricted, and recurring cash transfers, also known as guaranteed income. The results are promising for those who have been fortunate to be selected as participants, such as reduced mental distress and higher attainment of full-time jobs compared with control groups. However, assessing the health effects of guaranteed income remains an opportunity to explore. Sevly’s research aims to elucidate how guaranteed income can improve health outcomes by centering equity, dignity, and autonomy of historically minoritized populations. Guaranteed income is a promising public health intervention that can interrupt the health consequences facilitated by structural violence (e.g., structural racism, sexism, transphobia). Sevly wants to embed a Culture of Health in this movement in hopes of cementing guaranteed income as policy. Poverty is a policy choice that decision-makers can change.
MORE ABOUT SEVLY
Sevly is a queer, trans-nonbinary child of immigrant refugees who survived genocide in Cambodia. Sevly’s firsthand experiences surviving structural violence drive their scholarship and activism to create a better society, especially for minoritized populations. Sevly hopes to abolish poverty to ensure everyone has their basic needs met.
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — WINTER 2024
Guaranteed income as an economic intervention to mitigate the impact of structural racism on health
Guaranteed income is a novel intervention that targets poverty and can advance population health because it redistributes income and returns economic power to low-income persons. Guaranteed income can potentially target structural racism by closing health disparities to advance health equity by centering the unique needs of populations minoritized by US society. This dissertation seeks to examine the effects of guaranteed income on health with a specific emphasis on dismantling pathways structural racism harms health.
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