Prashasti Bhatnagar
Biography
Prashasti Bhatnagar (she/her) is a public health/immigration attorney and a Ph.D. student and Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow at UCLA. Her research is focused on explicating the relationship between legal regimes, social control, and state violence, as well as on centering how immigrant communities resist and engage in future-making. Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Prashasti received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center; M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as a Sommer Scholar, with a Certificate in Health Disparities and Health Inequalities; and B.S. in Sociology, summa cum laude from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Degrees
- M.A., Sociology, UCLA, 2025
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- M.P.H., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2022
- B.S., Sociology, summa cum laude, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
Fields of Study
Race, Ethnicity, and Empire; Health and Healing Justice; Immigrant Justice; Law; Abolition; South Asia and South Asian Diaspora
Publications
Peer Reviewed Articles:
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2024. “Medical-Legal Partnerships and Legal Regimes: A Health Justice Perspective.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 52(2):512-522. doi: 10.1017/jme.2024.121
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, Deborah F. Perry, and Margaret E. Greer. 2024. “How Should We Measure Effectiveness of Medical-Legal Partnerships?” American Medical Association Journal of Ethics 26(8): E626–633. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2024.626.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2024. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Leaves Agricultural Workers Behind.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 52(S1): 13–16. doi: 10.1017/jme.2024.34.
- Sonnenberg, Jake, Ariana Metchik, Caitlin Schille, Prashasti Bhatnagar, Lisa Kessler, Deborah Perry, Vicki Girard, Belinda Taylor, and Erin Hall. 2024. “Integration of Medical Legal Services into a Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program: A Provider Needs Assessment.” Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 97(2): 286–293. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000004302.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, and Sonia Canzater. 2022. “Investing in Community Care Is an Important Goal and Need for Eliminating Hepatitis C In the United States: An Abolitionist Perspective.” Health Promotion Practices 24(3):411–14. doi: 10.1177/15248399221129536.
- Girard, Vicki, Yael Cannon, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Susan Coleman. 2020. “How Medical-Legal Partnerships Help Address the Social Determinants of Mental Health.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 35(1):123–25. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2020.10.014.
Book Chapters:
- Yearby, Ruqaiijah, Prashasti Bhatnagar, Casey Glasser, and Dayna Bowen Matthew. 2025. “Gender Bias, Mental Health Inequities, and Health Justice.” in Mental Health Equity, edited by D. Dawes, N.L. Dunlap, and O.N. Martinez. Springer Publishing. doi: 10.1891/9780826180599.0013
Law Review Articles:
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Deportable until Essential: How the Neoliberal U.S. Immigration System Furthers Racial Capitalism and Operates as a Negative Social Determinant of Health.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 36(3):1017–40.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Borders Are the Real Crisis: A Public Health Perspective on the Need for Dismantling Imagined Borders.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 36(2):847–58.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2021. “Public Health As Pretext: The Evisceration of Asylum Law and Protections During A Pandemic.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 35(1):317–23.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2019. “Children in Cages: A Legal and Public Health Crisis.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 34(1):181–85.
Research Reports:
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, Rabiyah Abdus-Salaam, Sonia Canzater, Victoria Efetevbia, Raven Freeborn, Vicki Girard, Aza Nedhari, Deborah Perry, Erin Snowden, and Keisha Watson. 2024. “Housing Justice Is Reproductive Justice: A Review of Housing Justice as a Structural Determinant of Black Women and Birthing People’s Reproductive Health in Washington, DC.” Mamatoto Village.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, Mary Mbaba, Whitney Hewlett Noël, Opiaah Jeffers, and Deborah F. Perry. 2022. “‘Racism Bleeds Throughout this Entire Healthcare System’: Elevating Black Women’s Birth Stories in Washington, DC through a Racial Equity Lens.” Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Racism Drives the Maternal Health Crisis in Washington, DC: Elevating Systems and Policy Level Root Causes.” Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development.
- Girard, Vicki, Deborah Perry, Yael Cannon, Lisa Kessler, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Jessica Roth. 2022. “The Academic Medical-Legal Partnership: Training the Next Generation of Health & Legal Professionals to Work Together to Advance Health Justice.” National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.
- Canzater, Sonia, and Prashasti Bhatnagar. 2021. “Innovative Payment Models: An Analysis of the Promise and Practice of Novel Hepatitis C Medication Procurement Strategies in the U.S.” O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law.
- Goldman, Sarah, Anna Aspenson, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Robert Martin. 2021. “Essential, and in Crisis: A Comprehensive Review of the Public Health Threats Facing Farmworkers in the US.” Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
Awards & Grants
- Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship, UCLA, 2024, 2025
- Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship, UCLA, 2024-2025
- Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, UCLA, 2023-2026
- Bettina E. Pruckmayr Memorial Award for Human Rights, Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- Dean’s Certificate, Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- Exceptional Pro Bono Pledge Recognition, Georgetown University Law Center (highest honor), 2022
- Delta Omega Public Health Honorary Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2022
- Sommer Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (full ride and living stipend), 2020-2021
- John E. Tomas Endowed Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2019-2020, 2021-2022
- James E. Blower Memorial Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2019-2020, 2021-2022
- Merit Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2018-2019
- Mestenhauser Student Award for Excellence in Campus Internationalization, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Talle Family Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (full ride), 2017-2018
- Scholarly Excellence in Equity & Diversity (SEED) Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- President’s SEED Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- President’s Student Leadership & Service Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017 and 2018
- Sociology Outstanding Honors Thesis Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Sociology Undergraduate Capstone Research Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Barbara Newsome Award and Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017
- Academic All-Star Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2014-2018
- Global Excellence Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2014-2018
