I'm an Associate Professor in Social Science and senior social scientist for the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST), a collaboration between the LSHTM and the UKHSA, focusing on research and capacity strengthening in the field of epidemic preparedness and response, as well as providing technical support during epidemic outbreak response. In my role I lead the social science team’s research and capacity strengthening portfolio and provides technical support for epidemic outbreak responses. A medical anthropologist by training, my past research has focused on HIV/AIDS, Islam, ethics and medical governance, collective action, sexual practice, and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. My current work focuses on expanding the integration of social science approaches into research on epidemic outbreak preparedness and response and operationalising social science approaches for outbreak response, with recent deployment experience supporting a number of cholera outbreaks. Before joining the UK-PHRST/LSHTM, I taught anthropology at the University of Roehampton, development studies at the University of Leeds, and held research fellowships at Bradford University and the University of Oxford.
Affiliations
Teaching
I teach on the MSc Control of Infectious Diseases programme, and on the 'Medical Anthropology and Public Health'. the 'Management and Evaluation of Humanitarian Health Programmes' and the 'Pandemics' distance learning modules. I also serve as departmental research degree convenor and supervise PhD students.
Research
I'm interested in the integration of social science perspectives and approaches in public health interventions and research and have worked on cholera, HIV/AIDS, Islam, ethics and medical governance, collective action, sexual practice, and reproductive health. Geographically, much of my research has been in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, as well as in South Sudan and Malawi.
My key research areas include epidemic outbreak response and preparedness; gender, sexuality, and reproduction; life with HIV/AIDS, health care provision, and the politics of infectious disease control; Islam and Islamic reformism; Islamic ethics and bioethics; and civil society and collective action. I specialise in working with East African Muslim populations, but have also carried out research in Zimbabwe, as part of a large population-based HIV survey site.
I have conducted in-depth ethnographic fieldwork on life with HIV/AIDS, the rollout of antiretroviral treatment and the management of love, sex and romance on the Swahili coast; pregnancy care and childbirth decision-making in Zanzibar; and projects on the politicisation of AIDS activism; obstetric fistula in South Sudan and misclassification errors in rapid HIV testing in Zimbabwe. I also conduct operational research during outbreak response, including rapid ethnographic appraisals, integrated fact-finding missions on localised outbreaks, death investigations, analyses of risk communication and community engagement strategies, and vaccination campaign support.
I currently lead the Staying Alive project, which investigates how people try to survive in the context of multiple overlapping crises in eastern Zimbabwe; the Integrating Social Science Into the Africa CDC project; and the Rift Valley Fever in Uganda project; and contribute to studies investigating the translation of community feedback into decision making, and on Marburg virus in Guinea Bissau. I also work with the UK-PHRST to develop a social science research strategy for epidemic outbreak response, and as core-deployable member of the UK-PHRST I support epidemic outbreak responses in low- and middle-income countries, most recently the cholera epidemic in Malawi. Beyond infectious disease work, I am interested in everyday practice and the negotiation of sexual and reproductive health in the framework of Islamic bioethics; and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes.
Selected Publications
