Professor Medha D. Makhlouf presenting book chapter at Seton Hall’s Health Law Works-in-Progress Retreat

CARLISLE, Pa.—Professor Medha D. Makhlouf was selected to present a chapter from her book manuscript at the Tenth Annual Health Law Works-in-Progress Retreat organized by Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy. The chapter, titled “The Threadbare Health Care Safety Net for Uninsured Noncitizens,” explores the question of how laws governing the safety net subordinate noncitizens, thereby contributing to immigrant health inequities. The book, Health Justice for Migrants: Law as a Social Determinant Health, is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

The purpose of the retreat is to give health law scholars an opportunity to share their work and exchange ideas in a friendly, informal setting. Each year, a committee selects the papers to be presented through a blind selection process. One hour of the retreat is devoted to each paper draft. First, two commentators provide detailed feedback. This is followed by an open discussion in which all attendees participate, having read the drafts in advance.

Makhlouf is grateful to the retreat organizers for the opportunity to share the first draft of this chapter. She intends to revise the draft based on the feedback she receives at the retreat before presenting it at the Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in May 2026.

Professor Medha D. Makhlouf is the Elsie de R. and Samuel P. Orlando Distinguished Professor and founding director of the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic at Penn State Dickinson Law. She has a joint appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. Professor Makhlouf’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of health law, immigrants’ rights, and poverty law and policy. Her recent scholarship has been published in the Boston University Law Review, New York University Law Review, and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics. Professor Makhlouf is currently writing a book, tentatively titled Health Justice for Migrants, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press.