Bakita Kasadha

I joined the department in 2021. I am the main researcher on the NIHR RfPB-funded Nourish-UK study exploring attitudes towards infant feeding among new mothers and birthing parents living with HIV.

I previously worked as a peer researcher on the EPSRC-funded digital health research programme, INTUIT. This Newcastle University led digital health study explored self-management and living well with HIV.

I hold an MA in Applied Anthropology and Community Development from Goldsmiths College. My dissertation was titled “I’m not ‘hard to reach’, you’re hard to engage with!” The weakness of healthcare frameworks: exposing and overcoming the myth that racialised groups are hard to reach. In 2021, I developed this into an essay for the anthology More Than Talk: Perspectives of Black and People of Colour (BPOC) working in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in the United Kingdom (UK).

I hold a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing, from the University of Surrey. I use arts-based methods, including poetic inquiry, in qualitative research. I have applied this method in two EPSRC-funded projects: INTUIT and Telling Tales of Engagement. 

• Oxford Qualitative Research Methods tutor - Introduction to poetic inquiry (2021/22)

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School guest lecturer - Community engagement in global health research (2019/20 and 20/2021)

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School guest lecturer - Community engagement in global health research (2019/20 and 20/2021)

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School guest lecturer - Community mobilisation and international advocacy for affecting global health (2019/20 and 20/2021)

Dr Shema Tariq (UCL) and I co-edited a special collection on HIV and Women's Health: Where Are We Now? This is a joint collection between the Women's Health journal and Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease journal.