Dr Michelle Lokot
Assistant Professor
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H9SH
United Kingdom
Michelle has experience conducting qualitative research using interdisciplinary approaches. Her research interests include forced migration, gender, humanitarian assistance, gender-based violence and decolonisation. She has experience conducting feminist research and using participatory approaches.
Michelle was previously a humanitarian practitioner working on gender equality and gender-based violence. Prior to joining LSHTM, Michelle worked for the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and World Vision, including longer-term postings in Jordan, Nigeria and Burundi. Her PhD research explored humanitarian gender narratives on (im)mobility, family relationships and resistance among self-settled Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Michelle has a PhD in Gender Studies (SOAS), a Masters degree in International and Community Development, a Bachelors degree in Law and a Bachelors degree in Arts.
Michelle is a Co-Director of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre. She is also a member of the Gender Violence and Health Centre. Michelle is part of the global GBV AoR Community of Practice.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Michelle is Co-Organiser of the Conflict & Health course, where she also lectures on gender-based violence in humanitarian crises and decolonising humanitarian health. She lectures on ethics in gender-based violence research on the LSHTM short course: 'Researching Gender-based violence: methods and meaning'.
Michelle supervises multiple doctoral students at LSHTM, including: a DrPH student researching patient and public involvement among minoritised populations; and a DrPH student researching migrant worker health in Singapore. She also supervises a PhD student at the University of New South Wales (Australia) who is studying cross-cultural supervision of mental health service delivery for Syrian refugees in Turkey using a decolonial lens.
Michelle is a tutor and research supervisor for students completing a MSc in Public Health.
Research
Michelle is leading research on sexual and reproductive health in Somalia and South Sudan, as part of the Afya Consortium. She is Co-Principal Investigator, along with Dr. Rahma Hassan (University of Nairobi) on a project exploring localisation of GBV in Kenya (2024-2026). Michelle works with colleagues at the Gender, Violence and Health Centre on a project focused on decolonising the violence against women field. This includes leading a scoping review and qualitative research with practitioners and academics.
Michelle is also Co-Investigator for research on intimate partner violence in Bangladesh. She is leading qualitative research to explore the impact of food, cash and behaviour change communication on women's experiences of violence.
From 2020-2024, Michelle led a workstream on the GOAL project in Lebanon. Her work explored power hierarchies within humanitarian coordination structures and refugee participation in mental health decision-making. Previously, within the RECAP project, she conducted research on co-production within humanitarian settings.
In 2022-2023, Michelle led a project on refugee participation, conducting a scoping review on refugee participation in gender equality and GBV research, as well as qualitative research with practitioners and academics about how they operationalise refugee participation in research. From 2019-2020, Michelle worked in the Department of Global Health & Development at LSHTM, where she led the development of a social norms course for NGO practitioners working on child protection issues. Within this department, she led qualitative research on agency and child marriage among NGO practitioners in Cameroon and Somalia, and a systematic review on corporal punishment and social norms.
Selected Publications
