Arnel Borras
Arnel is Assistant Professor at the Rankin School of Nursing, St. Francis Xavier University. Informed by his experiences as a factory worker and frontline nurse, he integrates practice, critical research, and advocacy to examine the structural drivers of health inequities. He holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Equity from York University. His research centres on the political economy of health, with emphasis on food insecurity, housing precarity, and systemic inequities in health systems, advancing structural transformations toward ecological, societal, and human flourishing.
Research Interests
- Nursing Leadership and Activism
- Health Inequality, Health Inequity, and Health Injustice
- Social Justice and Health Equity
- Social Determinants of Health
- Healthcare Systems and Services
- Employment and Working Conditions
- Income and Wealth Inequality
- Housing Insecurity and Homelessness
- Food insecurity
- Food Sovereignty
- Political Economy of Health
- Intersectionality and Health
- Power and Health Politics
- Health Policy and Advocacy
- Labour and Social Movements
- Welfare State Systems
- Critical Discourse Analysis
ORCiD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2237-0980
ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arnel-Borras
Borras, A. M. (2025, February). Health and health care inequities: A critical political economy perspective. Fernwood Publishing.
Borras, A. M. (2025, February). The political economy of racialized health inequities. In T. Bryant (Ed.), Handbook on the social determinants of health. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Borras, A. M. (2024). A critical political economy of health inequities. In D. Primrose, R. Loeppky, & R. Chang (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of the political economy of health and healthcare (pp. 119–130). Routledge.
Borras, A.M., Komakech, M., & Raphael, D. (2023). Policy-related homelessness discourses in Canada: Implications for nursing research, practice, and advocacy. Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 5(1), 31–54. https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.145
Borras, A.M. (2023). The challenge of exposing and ending health inequalities through social and policy change: Canadian experiences. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services. doi:10.1177/27551938221148376
Borras, A.M. (2022). Tackling health inequalities through public policy action: Insights from Canadian policy academics, activists, and advocates [Doctoral dissertation, School of Health Policy and Management, York University]. York University, Toronto. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/items/da139d31-0f00-4411-a797-af45e397260b
Borras, A.M. (2021). Toward an intersectional approach to health justice. International Journal of Health Services. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731420981857
Borras, A. M., & Mohamed, F. A. (2020). Health inequities and the shifting paradigms of food security, food insecurity, and food sovereignty. International Journal of Health Services, 50(3), 299– 313. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731420913184
Borras, A. M. (2016). Towards equitable health policy: A critical approach to Canadian housing insecurity and homelessness as informed by political economy and social determinants of health [Major research paper, York University]. YorkSpace. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/32410
