Role: PhD. student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, Canada

  Contact: robertrivers@live.com

 Scholarship:
Healthy Policy | Youth

Robert is a PhD. student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program (ISGP) at the University of British Columbia focusing on health and school connectedness among street-involved youth in BC he is also research assistant with the Stigma, Resiliency among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC) located within the UBC School of Nursing. He obtained a B.Sc (Hons) in 2007 from the University of Toronto majoring in socio-cultural anthropology. In 2008 he obtained his MA in applied anthropology from the University Lumiere (Lyon 2) in Lyon, France.

His current interests are school based health policies, health policy decision making, health risk behaviours among street-involved youth and the social determinants of health in British Columbia, Canada and abroad. Robert, along with others, has worked on several publications including the first ever report focusing solely on young men’s health in BC, “The XY Factor: The State of Boys’ and Young Mens’ Health in BC”, University of British Columbia (2012), an ebook chapter on sexual exploitation “Which comes first: Sexual exploitation or other risk exposures among street-involved youth?”, and enjoys discussing many public and population health topics. His interest also includes critically considering gender reporting among sexually exploited youth and perpetrators “On Sexual Exploitation of Adolescents.” Journal of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neo-Natal Nursing, 2012 41(2):163-165.

He is currently on a fellowship with to the Western Regional Training Centre for Health Service Research at the UBC School of Population and Health. He is also an honorary faculty member in the UBC Faculty of Medicine as a post-doc teaching fellow where he tutors first and second year medical students on public health issues within the Doctor, Patient and Society (DPAS) course.

As a visiting scholar with Martha Albertson Fineman and researchers affiliated with the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, Robert examined how a vulnerability framework can be applied in health policy.