Dr Agnès Berthelot-Raffard is an assistant professor in the School of Health Policy & Management at York University. She is a political philosopher who earned her PhD in Philosophy from Pantheon-Sorbonne and Université de Montréal. Her research expertise is Black Health studies, Black political thought, Black feminist thought, and Black Disability Studies.
She is interested in understanding how anti-Black racism impacts all the dimensions of health and well-being. Currently, she is working on two major projects.
She is leading pan-Canadian research on Black students’ mental health, for which she founded a non-profit organization, The Black Students’ Mental Health Project (BSMHP). Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, this PanCanadian project is based on partnerships between academia, community organizations, and sectors intervening in psycho-social health. Its approach to equity and social justice seeks to confront systemic barriers faced by Black in Canadian universities by implementing innovative research based on a culturally relevant approach and aimed at the social participation and capacity-building of students and intellectuals from Black communities.
Dr Berthelot-Raffard is also leading community-based research on Black women’s reproductive health. In addition to this, as a creator of the first accredited university course in the francophone world devoted entirely to Black Feminist thought/afro feminist studies (in 2017, at Montréal, Quebec), she also continues to work intensively developing this field of study in French.
Her area of interest is epistemological, philosophical and political issues regarding Black women in Canada, France and the French Caribbean.