July 2024
Rethinking Global Health symposium
The Rethinking Global Health symposium took place at Bramber House on Friday 28 June. This hybrid BSMS20 event, hosted by the new Centre of Excellence for Global Health Research, brought together participants and speakers from more than 10 countries to share ideas around what could be done to make global health equitable and inclusive, particularly considering the colonial legacy of the discipline. The day started with a keynote speech from Prof Seye Abimbola followed by 10 presentations on decolonial approaches to global health, geopolitics and regulations, and humanitarian crises and climate change. The final session was a panel chaired by Prof Shahaduz Zaman, with participation from Prof Patricia Kingori (Professor of Global Health Ethics, University of Oxford), Dr Caroline Khene (Digital Cluster Lead, Institute of Development Studies), Dr Arianne Shahvisi (Senior Lecturer in Ethics, BSMS) and Dr Jennie Gamlin (Associate Professor, Medical Anthropology and Global Health, University College London). The sessions are being transcribed and the organising committee are hoping to publish a paper based on the discussions. You can follow the work of the Centre of Excellence on LinkedIn below.
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Intersecting stigmas: addressing stigma through public engagement
Drs Caroline Ackley and Khalid Ali concluded their activities funded by the Researcher Led Initiative Fund at BHASVIC in June. Their work was a collaboration between the Stigma Working Group at BSMS and MedFest Egypt. The project, titled ‘Intersecting Stigmas: addressing stigma through public engagement’, brought short films on the topic of migration and refugee experiences to the community. They screened Mare Nostrum to twenty students at BHASVIC and also supported the Early Childhood Project to hold a family day for refugee, asylum seeking and migrant families as part of their ongoing equalities and sanctuary work. Thirty-one people attended and engaged in facilitated play, portrait drawing, playdough, badge making and henna. Families were also able to take home donated toys and playdough. Find out more about the Stigma Working Group below.
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Amsterdam SRHR conference report
Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health), provides an update on attending a conference in Amsterdam last week. “I was invited to submit a panel to the conference ‘From Theory to Practice and Back: Anthropological Contributions to the Future(s) of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR),’ held at the University of Amsterdam from July 3-5, 2024. Our accepted panel titled ‘Examining Emerging Reproductive Subjectivities in the Global South’ was convened by myself and Anindita Majumdar from IIT Hyderabad India. This panel allowed us to bring in relevant scholars to discuss ‘non-birthing’ subjects, a neglected area of reproductive health. It was great to facilitate the panel at this important conference, share my work and connect with other scholars in the field. The organiser’s insightful discussions made the event both enriching and impactful. The open discussions and the exchange of ideas will help me better understand and address the future of SRHR issues, particularly in Low and Middle-Income Countries, and has also opened the door for future collaborations in this field.”
Saeideh presents research in Vienna
Dr Saeideh Babashahi, a Research Fellow in Health Economics, presented her research titled ‘A feasibility study of the extent, frequency and outcomes of services used by adults experiencing self-neglect: evidence from England’, earlier this month at the European Health Economics Association (EuHEA) Conference 2024 in Vienna. Dr Babashahi said EuHEA connects health economists across the world, and this was an excellent opportunity for her to present their research at the EuHEA Conference 2024, receive feedback from other health economists, and improve her networking across Europe and more broadly globally with the potential for future collaborations with different institutes.
Black Box of Policy
At the University of Sussex’s annual Early Career Researcher symposium this month, the innovative 'Black Box of Policy' installation by Dr Gemma Aellah, Social Anthropologist at BSMS, was showcased. Using this creative approach to help people understand the process involved in policy making, the box is on an international tour. Watch the video to see inside the box below.
Watch the video here >
Dedicating a day to exploring inclusivity and belonging
On Thursday 11 July, colleagues from the Global Health and Infection Department gathered at the Whitecliffs café in Saltdean for a different kind of away-day: no Wi-Fi, no laptops, no PowerPoints or academic presentations. Instead, a programme packed with activities to encourage conversations about what it means to belong. Colleagues explored questions such as: how do we promote and sustain an inclusive and supportive study/work environment which affirms equal and fair treatment for all staff, and what was helpful when starting a new role to feel a sense of belonging and what things could have been done to help facilitate that? The purpose of the activities was not only to encourage connection and exchange of ideas, but also to offer some helpful pointers so that the Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity leads can use the findings to put together an action plan and co-create departmental themes around the department’s culture. The day ended with a ‘pebbles’ activity where attendees wrote something that got in their way of them being able to achieve what they hoped for and a value they would act on to support a culture of belonging, and that pebble was kept as a reminder of their commitment.
Duo at parliamentary round table
On Monday 22 July, Dr Mei Trueba and Prof Mood Bhutta participated in a parliamentary round table at the House of Lords on public procurement. The meeting, intended to inform those working on public procurement legislation after the election, was attended by two members of the House of Lords and about 20 public procurement experts, including NHS sustainability managers and experts from Electronics Watch, Anti-Slavery International, UNISON, and the Corporate Justice Coalition. Among other recommendations, Mood spoke about the importance of data transparency, and Mei highlighted the positive and unintended consequences of sanctions and import bans.
New paper: experiences of violence
Half of the world’s children experience violence every year, but the meaning of violence is not universally agreed. Dr Anne Gatuguta from the Global Health and Infection department at BSMS, with colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has published a systematic review exploring how children and adolescents conceptualise their experiences of violence and how these conceptualisations align with, and are distinct from, international definitions of violence. Read the full findings here and their recommendations for those developing measures to consider when developing items for testing below.
Read the paper here >