Inclusivité & SantéResearch chair · Fondation Bordeaux Université
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International chairFondation Bordeaux Université

Equity is theheartbeat of ahealthy society!

A research chair that treats equality as a determinant of physical and mental health, at work, in healthcare and in sport.

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A chair of theUniversity of Bordeaux
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The problem

Discrimination does not stay at the door. It is written into our bodies.

Despite progress in diversity and equality policies, unequal treatment based on discriminatory criteria continues to weaken people and organisations.

Chronic stress, psychosomatic and eating disorders, gradual exhaustion. Then harm to well-being, falling performance, interrupted careers.

Long approached from a legal and economic angle, discrimination is still widely underestimated in its effects on health.

What it costs public health has never yet been measured in France. The Chair is building this first data.

Illustration without figures: health and career paths bent by factors linked to discrimination.
Conceptual visualisation, with no statistical value.

Our answer

What if research could not only explain these gaps, but help close them?

Our mission

To foster collective and individual success by working towards a fairer society that supports people’s health and well-being, through cutting-edge interdisciplinary research for relational ethics at work and in sport.

The Chair treats equality as a determinant of the health of workers in the public and private sectors, with a focus on professional sport.

Focus
Gender (sexism) and discrimination based on origin and skin colour.
Three questions
Managing the body. Sustainable careers. How success is socially produced.
Scientific director
Yamina Meziani, associate professor of sociology, University of Bordeaux, LACES (UR 7437), junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Sociology of workPublic healthPolitical scienceLawMedicine

Objectives

Five concrete commitments

  1. Create awareness and training tools: guides and a serious game.
  2. Shed light on the physical and mental health of women and of social groups facing discrimination.
  3. Deliver innovative, interdisciplinary professional training for managers and healthcare professionals (diploma, seminars).
  4. Improve processes to make careers and bodies more sustainable (HR innovation).
  5. Develop data and recommendations to guide corporate social responsibility policies.
Equity and dignity
“Regenerative” organisations with a positive social footprint
Health and well-being at work
Scientific excellence serving public policy and communities

Who it is for: elite sport, healthcare professionals, executives, managers and recruiters.

Three pillars, one centre

Three pillars that strengthen each other.

Tap a pillar in the diagram to discover its projects. Each pillar feeds the other two.

Chair
Inclusiveness
& Health

Pillar 1 of 3

Research excellence

Measuring what discrimination costs health, and understanding how success is produced.

  • Discri on HealthStrand 1
  • How success is madeStrand 2
  • Carrying equality policiesStrand 3
  • Book “The hidden cost”May 2025
Explore the research
Next: Training

Pillar 1 of 3Research excellence

Making visible what harms health.

Three research strands, from the workplace to public policy.

Discri on Health

Discri on Health measures what workplace discrimination costs in public health terms. The programme combines qualitative and quantitative surveys to document precisely the effects of discrimination on mental and physical health, with particular attention to women’s health.

It analyses discrimination as a risk factor in order to build inclusiveness-related health indicators and guide joined-up prevention in occupational health.

A first in France

The programme will produce the first data of this kind in France.

Lead
Yamina Meziani
Funding
Institut Universitaire de France (junior chair)
Team
Physicians, epidemiology, public health, lawyers, sociologists of work, psychologists
Expertise
University of Ottawa · Harvard University
Network
Building a European research network

How success is made

This strand examines the social conditions that produce success today and young people’s paths through a changing world of work: artificial intelligence, evolving skills and institutional expectations.

These changes weigh on the health of workers, and just as much on that of leaders.

Carrying equality policies

A reflection on how equality policies are carried, implemented and coordinated by institutions, organisations and anti-discrimination professionals.

Cover of the book “Discrimination, a public health issue in France: the hidden cost”

Book · May 2025

Discrimination, a public health issue in France: the hidden cost

What if fighting discrimination were a public health necessity?

Edited by Yamina Meziani, with field studies by Mame-Fatou Diop Nintcheu, general practitioner, and Matys Verlant, sociologist. Following in the footsteps of Professor David R. Williams (Harvard University), the book shows how discrimination becomes a major risk factor for physical and mental health.

Lormont, Le Bord de l’eau, “Documents” series, 2025. 168 pages, €18. ISBN 978-2-38519-153-5. In French.

See the book on the publisher’s site

Interview

David R. Williams, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The Chair interviewed David R. Williams, whose work established discrimination as a determinant of physical and mental health. His Everyday Discrimination Scale is one of the most widely used measurement tools in the world.

[TO BE COMPLETED: link to the interview]

Pillar 2 of 3Trainingwith the Faculty of Health, Saint-Étienne

Training those who care, lead and recruit.

Discrimination approached as a health, human, legal and economic risk factor, not as an abstract moral issue.

Inter-university diploma · 2026-2027

Bodies and discrimination

Understand the impacts, secure practices, prevent risks in health systems and at work. A unique programme in France, run by the University of Bordeaux and Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne. Taught in French.

86 hfrom November 2026 to June 2027
9modules
15 to 25places

Audience

  • Physicians (from residency), carers, healthcare managers, occupational health
  • Managers, executives, HR (public, private, sport)
  • Social care and support
  • Public policy and law

Organisation

  • Live online, compatible with a job
  • Starts on 10 November 2026 in Saint-Étienne
  • Final conference on 3 and 4 June 2027 in Bordeaux

Fees

  • Continuing education: €1,700
  • Reduced continuing education rate: €950
  • Initial training: €650

Admission

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, admission on application
  • Recognition of prior experience possible

In partnership with Prof. Jude Mary Cénat, director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health (University of Ottawa). Programme leads: Yamina Meziani, Angélique Savall, Rodolphe Charles.

Applications open until 2 October 2026.

Apply on eCandidat
Diploma brochure, page 1 of 6
Brochure · page 1 / 6

Awareness

Medical school, 2nd year

Seminar on sexist and sexual violence, 11 September 2026, lecture hall 3: mornings for pharmacy and dentistry, afternoons for midwifery and medicine. With Marine Bessin and Hachem Benissa (“Sexism, racism and discrimination at university: spot, act and respond”), and Drs Léa Rouchou, Maïté Caumont and Chantal Bergey. Coordinated by Prof. Sandrine Dabernat.

Network

Teaching in the first years of medicine

The Chair is a member of the network led by Mathilde Lambert, child psychiatrist at the Centre hospitalier de la Côte Basque and PhD candidate at Université Paris Cité. It shares teaching practices to address discrimination, and racism in particular, from the very start of medical training.

Workshop

AI and health: rethinking medicine at the human-machine frontier

Interdisciplinary day on 13 December 2025 at Isped, organised by Ariel Guerra-Adames with MIT Critical Data, PLOS Digital Health and Bordeaux University Hospital. Yamina Meziani spoke on “AI and stereotyped bias”.

See in the events

Pillar 3 of 3Outreach to society

The researcher in the city.

Research only matters if it travels. Two programmes take it out of the lab.

Égalité des places @Quality programme

Success is a story of encounters.

Support for young people preparing a step in their journey. Young people apply themselves. Depending on workload, the team meets them to give advice, review a document, hold an interview or help them build their method.

Competitive exam oralsWritten workInternship searchClarifying their path

Supported journeys are anonymised.

The Chair’s festival

Même Monde

Open to everyone, the festival takes research out of the lab to share it with citizens and families through art, literature, humour and cinema. Twelve stops across the Bordeaux metropolitan area, from January to March 2027.

Drag to turn the Earth · tap a point to follow the link

An international chair

Bordeaux as the starting point. The world as a place for dialogue.

The places where the Chair works, teaches and speaks. Hover over a place to follow the link.

    Horizon Europe UNDETERREDENLIGHT · IMPULSEAISLF · CR40UNESCO Chair ISNoVAIFREF

    Events & news

    Where research meets people.

    Conferences, seminars, talks and debates. Past dates stay in the archive.

    Call for papers · national conference · University of Bordeaux

    Racism in healthcare? From medical training to medical practice in care systems

    The conference aims to consolidate a field that is still emerging in France: understanding how racial discrimination is produced, experienced, measured and fought in healthcare settings, and which teaching approaches truly change professional practice. It closes the diploma year.

    1. 15 Nov. 2026Submission deadline
    2. 15 Jan. 2027Notification to authors
    3. 15 Feb. 2027Final programme
    4. 3-4 June 2027Conference in Bordeaux
    Proposal
    Title, authors and affiliations, abstract of up to 500 words, 3 to 5 keywords, short bibliography. In French or English.
    Send to
    heloiseladousputhon@gmail.com and mathilde.lambert@etu.u-paris.fr
    Registration
    €150 researchers and professionals · €80 PhD students
    Organisation
    Yamina Meziani, Mathilde Lambert, Éloïse Ladous Puthon

    Seven themes

    1. Producing knowledge on racial discrimination in health
    2. Racism, discrimination and social health inequalities
    3. Teaching discrimination in health education
    4. Institutions, public policy and governance
    5. Lived experience and professional practice
    6. International and comparative perspectives
    7. Communication and crisis management around discrimination in health
    Send a proposal

    Seminar series 2025-2026 · hybrid format

    Body politics and education: discrimination and health

    Six sessions bringing together sociology, history, law, statistics and medicine. Organising committee: Hachem Benissa, Iris Condamine-Ducreux, Christine Larrazet, Yamina Meziani. With CR40 (AISLF), LACES, the Centre Émile Durkheim (“MARGEs” strand) and Horizon Europe UNDETERRED. In French.

      Portrait of Yamina Meziani

      Scientific director

      Yamina Meziani

      Associate professor of sociology, University of Bordeaux, LACES (UR 7437). Junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Officer for gender parity, equality and diversity at the University of Bordeaux.

      [TO BE COMPLETED: approved quote from Yamina Meziani]

      Research team

      • Djaouidah SehiliProfessor of sociology, CEREP, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne
      • Rodolphe CharlesAssociate professor of general practice, Faculty of Health, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne
      • Angélique SavallAssociate professor (HDR), general practitioner, Faculty of Health, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne
      • Marine BessinGeneral practitioner, clinical lecturer
      • Mame-Fatou Diop-NintcheuGeneral practitioner, clinical lecturer, Grenoble
      • Hachem BenissaSociologist, postdoctoral researcher, LACES, University of Bordeaux; co-lead of the Horizon Europe UNDETERRED project
      • Éric DugasProfessor of education and training sciences, LACES, INSPE, University of Bordeaux
      • Iris Condamine-DucreuxPostdoctoral researcher, Sophiapol, Université Paris Nanterre
      • Arlette EdjoloEpidemiologist, Bordeaux Population Health (Inserm, University of Bordeaux)
      • Sofiane MahiPhD candidate in sociology, CEREP, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne
      Expert adviser

      Jude Mary Cénat, full professor, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa. Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and the V-TRaC lab.

      Scientific committee

      Guarantees the relevance and scientific integrity of the research.

      Being set up
      Steering committee

      Involves patrons and institutions in monitoring the action plan.

      Being set up

      Key figures

      A chair already in motion.

      Only verifiable figures. Impact indicators will be published as programmes progress.

      10

      researchers in the research team, plus an expert adviser in Ottawa

      5

      disciplines combined: sociology of work, public health, political science, law, medicine

      86

      of training in the “Bodies and discrimination” diploma, in 9 modules

      6

      sessions of the “Body politics and education” seminar

      16

      partner institutions, patrons, networks and programmes

      12

      stops of the Même Monde festival across the Bordeaux area

      3 000

      people trained or reached

      11

      young people supported by Égalité des places

      Patronage & partnership

      What if your company helped advance health equity?

      Supporting the Chair is not funding a budget line. It means joining an ambitious scientific endeavour, an international academic network and a community committed to fairer, more sustainable organisations.

      Impact

      Contribute to a project with concrete social ambition: producing the first French data on the health cost of discrimination.

      Commitment

      Give tangible form to your CSR policies, in line with the recommendations developed by the Chair.

      Knowledge

      Build bridges with research: occupational health, sustainable careers, HR innovation.

      Ecosystem

      Meet researchers, institutions, companies and committed players, from Bordeaux to Ottawa.

      Visibility

      Associate your organisation with an international chair of the Fondation Bordeaux Université.

      Mobilisation

      Create opportunities to raise awareness among your staff and stakeholders, including through training.

      Your commitment sets research in motion

      Your support

      It all starts with a single point.

      Visualisation of the multiplier effect, with no financial value.

      Become a patron

      Support the Chair over time, alongside the Fondation Bordeaux Université.

      Get in touch

      Join the steering committee

      The committee involves patrons and institutions in monitoring the action plan.

      Talk to us

      Support a programme

      Discri on Health, the diploma, Égalité des places or the Même Monde festival.

      Choose a programme

      Talk with the team

      A first meeting to understand your challenges and build together.

      Suggest a meeting

      Tax framework for patronage. Donations to the Fondation Bordeaux Université may qualify for tax schemes depending on your status. [TO BE COMPLETED: conditions approved by the Fondation Bordeaux Université] No benefit or rate is stated until it has been confirmed.

      Partners

      They are already moving research forward with us.

      Institutions, patrons and research networks working alongside the Chair.

      Institutions

      Patrons and committed partners

      Research networks and programmes

      Let’s make equity beat stronger.

      Companies, foundations and institutions: let’s build a healthier society together.

      Become a partner Meet the team

      Contact the Chair

      Tell us who you are and what you have in mind. Your message goes to the scientific director.

      Scientific directorYamina Meziani
      yamina.meziani@u-bordeaux.fr
      Diploma: quotes and fundingformation.continuesh@u-bordeaux.fr
      Diploma: admission and timetabledu.sh@u-bordeaux.fr
      I would like to

      Your data is only used to answer your request. It is never shared or used for any other purpose. You can ask the scientific director to delete it at any time.

      Your email app opens with your message pre-filled. You just need to send it.

      A festival supporting scientific research on the health of society.

      January → March 2027Bordeaux · Talence · Mérignac · Pessac · Cenon · Lormont
      The festival’s DNA

      What makes us hold on to one another?

      Même Monde (“Same World”) grew out of a collective formed around shared values: living together, what we might call societal love.

      Our times are saturated with talk of social, generational, political and identity divides. We know how to measure inequality, document discrimination and analyse distrust of institutions. We have far fewer words for what works.

      The festival tells the story of what connects us: discoveries that open possibilities, perspectives that meet, paths that find common ground despite discrimination and exclusion. It does not deny conflict. It looks for what, despite it, makes collective life possible.

      Cohesion, fraternity, solidarity, citizenship: these words can feel abstract. The festival wants to give them a face again.

      Loving our fellow citizens does not mean knowing them all, agreeing with them or resembling them. It means believing that their existence matters and that their future concerns us.

      The forms of societal love

      Self-loveRecognising one’s own worth.
      GratitudeTowards those who help us.
      AttachmentTo those who are like us.
      Love of beauty and justiceFor what seems beautiful or right to us.
      At the heart of the festival, the most demanding formAccepting differenceMaking our relationship with others a path to transformation.
      Scienceto understand
      Life storiesto embody
      Historyto pass on
      Artto feel
      Communityto connect

      Même Monde was born from meeting people who have been working across the metropolitan area for years. Together, they take research beyond academic circles without watering it down.

      Rocher de PalmerUtopiaTNBAThéâtre FéminaPublishersResearchersArtistsPessac s’engage network
      Taking care

      The health of a society

      The health of a society is not only the health status of its population. It is its ability to make room for everyone, protect the most vulnerable, stop differences from turning into hierarchies, and build institutions that respect rather than exclude.

      Bodies carry the wounds of the social world. Discrimination, violence, insecurity, isolation and lack of recognition affect mental and physical health, care pathways and the ability to imagine a future.

      • Scientific conversations about what we know and what remains to be discovered
      • Stories and works of art that make visible the social effects on bodies and lives
      • Public meetings where research meets testimony, debate and sometimes disagreement
      • Fundraising for independent, participatory and actionable research
      Même Monde
      No. 1Bordeaux Metropolitan editionJanuary 2027

      A festival crosses the city

      Même Monde festival logo
      The festival emblem, soon on the city’s walls.

      BORDEAUX. From Talence to Cenon, from Mérignac to Pessac, researchers, artists and residents come together around one simple question: what makes us hold on to one another? Talks, theatre, readings and screenings are announced.

      At the Théâtre Fémina and the TNBA, at the Rocher de Palmer and Utopia, science takes to the streets. Portraits of scholars will be displayed on the city’s walls. The organisers promise to name the divides without stopping there.

      A fundraiser is open to support research on the health of society. Donations will fund field studies and work on the health of women, minorities, young people and our children.

      The circuit
      The circuit

      Twelve stops across the metropolitan area.

      From January to March 2027. At every stop, a specialist researcher puts the works and discussions into perspective with the current state of knowledge.

      First stop D–0 Thursday 7 January 2027 · Talence
      • 12stops
      • 6towns
      • 3months of festival
      • 1researcher at every stop

      Programme subject to change: venues and dates are being confirmed. Event descriptions are in French.

      The festival podcast

      La Belle Union

      A podcast exploring what connects us. It extends Même Monde online and gives a voice to researchers, artists and people met along the circuit, before, during and after the events. It treats love as a sociological subject: the forms of attachment that allow everyone to find their place, be recognised and live with their differences. In French.

      Podcast 1 · expert format

      “What we have just found, what we still need to look for”

      Each episode starts with a simple question: what have we recently learned about a topic that concerns us all, and what remains to be understood?

      Who
      A researcher shares their progress, their doubts and the leads ahead.
      How
      Start from a real problem, never ending on the diagnosis alone.
      Frequency
      Five to six interviews per season.
      Podcast 2 · general audience

      Research in real life

      Each episode starts from a person, a work, a gesture or a moment that marked its time, decoded by a researcher.

      Common thread
      How do we position ourselves towards others?
      Closing question
      “What still makes you love this society?”

      One question, seven disciplines

      Political science
      • What makes us want to keep believing in collective life?
      • How can public policy better fight discrimination?
      • What can we learn from what works elsewhere?
      Sociology
      • How do we learn to love others?
      • How are power relations and otherness shaped from school onwards?
      • How can certain practices rebalance relationships?
      Law
      • Can we build justice without building trust?
      • Why is discrimination still hard to prove?
      • Which new tools now help establish the facts?
      Medicine
      • What does it mean to care for a society?
      • What effects does discrimination have on health?
      • How can training healthcare workers change practice?
      Neurology
      • Can our brain learn to love others?
      • What happens in the brain when we face rejection?
      • What does brain plasticity tell us about changing our biases?
      History
      • How have societies learned to love themselves?
      • Which moments in history show that fraternity can drive collective progress?
      History of religions
      • Have we built a society without love?

      First episodes: release date coming soon.

      What makes it different

      The researcher in the city.

      The festival champions the place and role of researchers in the city. At every stop, a specialist researcher is there to put the works and discussions into perspective and make sure knowledge reaches the public accurately.

      With Bordeaux Métropole, large-format portraits of the researchers will be displayed in public spaces. The goal: to restore the value of scientific rigour in debates that rest on no established knowledge.

      Simulated festival poster on a Bordeaux façadeSimulation, sample visual
      Bordeaux · city-centre façade
      Simulated festival poster in LormontSimulation, sample visual
      Lormont · La Buttinière station

      The people shown are fictional. The final posters will feature the festival’s researchers.

      The research we fund

      Turning collective emotion into the power to act.

      Every donation funds independent, participatory research on the health of society. One question: what social conditions allow every life to be recognised, protected and cared for with the same attention?

      Women’s healthMinority healthYouth healthProtecting our children’s health

      What the funds pay for

      • Field studies
      • Interdisciplinary projects
      • Involvement of the people concerned
      • Prevention tools
      • Sharing results with professionals and decision-makers

      Projects are selected on published scientific, ethical and social criteria. The use of donations is tracked transparently.

      I donate to science Fundraising link coming soon

      Join Même Monde

      Supporting the festival helps research understand what damages human bonds, and what can repair them.

      CitizensMediaCompaniesFoundationsLocal authoritiesNon-profits

      Festival contact

      Partnerships, press, volunteering or just a question: email or call us.

      siriusevent.ad@gmail.com +33 6 34 49 87 17
      Join the ChairBecome a patron

      Publisher

      chaireis.com is published by the Inclusiveness and Health Chair, a research chair of the Fondation Bordeaux Université, attached to the LACES laboratory (UR 7437) of the University of Bordeaux.

      Contact: yamina.meziani@u-bordeaux.fr

      Publication director

      The Chair’s scientific director, who can be reached at the address above.

      Hosting

      Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States. cloudflare.com

      Intellectual property

      The texts, visuals and graphic elements of this site are protected by copyright. The logos of the Fondation Bordeaux Université, the University of Bordeaux and partners remain the property of their respective owners. Any reproduction or reuse without prior permission is prohibited.

      The Même Monde festival poster visuals are simulations: the people shown are fictional.

      Liability

      Information on this site is provided for guidance and may change, in particular the events programme. The Chair cannot be held responsible for the content of external sites linked from this site.

      Credits

      Globe textures: NASA (public domain), via the three.js library. Fonts: Google Fonts.