3P Lab: Centring Power, Privilege and Positionality for Health Equity Research

About

The 3P Lab is an interdisciplinary hub dedicated to transforming how health equity research is conceived, conducted, and put into practice. Developed in response to the profound inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and longstanding calls to confront structural racism in Canada, the lab advances approaches that rigorously interrogate the power dynamics, privileges, and positionalities that shape research itself. Its work is rooted in the understanding that equitable health systems require research processes that are culturally safe, community-led, and grounded in justice.

The 3P Lab brings together scholars working at the intersections of public health, social science, Indigenous studies, and health economics to establish new standards for equity-centred inquiry.

Its research pillars focus on:

  • building justice-driven data practices that honour community ownership and sovereignty;
  • strengthening a shift from community-based to truly community-led methodologies; and
  • cultivating reflexive scientific practice that reshapes health equity research agendas.

Through accessible physical and digital infrastructure purposefully designed for collaboration with made-vulnerable communities, the 3P Lab provides a home for innovative methodological development, co-creation, and capacity strengthening. Its mission is to catalyze research that not only documents inequities but actively contributes to more just, culturally grounded, and community-responsive health systems.

Lead Faculty

Beverley Essue

Accepting Students