A Political Economy of Inequality and Pandemics

Join in person or via Zoom us for a Global Health Politics Workshop with Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD, Director & Associate Professor, Center for Global Health Policy & Politics. Prof. Kavanagh is a political scientist working at the intersection of law, political economy, and global health to explore how international and national governance institutions function and how they produce inequality, particularly in pandemics.

The world is in a new age of pandemics, in which they are more frequent and severe. This is often attributed to factors like travel and urbanization. Less explored are the political drivers. This talk explores the idea of a pandemic-inequality cycle and, in particular, the comparative politics of policy coordination in a pandemic that might help explain why more unequal countries have seen greater morality and transmission when viruses break out.

Co-sponsored by the BU Politics and Health Lab and the Center on Emerging Infectious Disease.

When 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm on 5 March 2026
Building Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 67 Bay State Road OR via Zoom