Bakita Kasadha

Bakita Kasadha proudly sits at the intersection of social science and organising work. Her background is in HIV advocacy and research. She is interested in the use of participatory and arts-based research methods in studies related to long-term health conditions. 

Bakita joined the department in 2021 as the field researcher on the NIHR RfPB-funded Nourish-UK study. Nourish-UK is a multi-award-winning study exploring attitudes towards infant feeding among new mothers, pregnant women and birthing parents living with HIV.

She was awarded an NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, which she began in January 2023.

She is a collaborator and peer researcher on the Implementing Long-Acting Novel Antiretrovirals (ILANA), led by Queen Mary University London (ViiV Healthcare funded). The study takes an implementation science approach to evaluate the feasibility of long-acting Cabotegravir and Rilpivirine (CAB and RPV LA) administration at NHS HIV clinics and community settings. ILANA is part of the Sexual Health and HIV All East Research (SHARE) Collaborative. Bakita is a member of the Collaborative’s Community Advisory Board.

Bakita is a Co-Investigator on the Partnership for Black People’s Health: involving Black communities in addressing health inequalities led by Queen Mary University London (funded by NIHR PDG). Her work package focuses on the involvement of Black peer researchers in academically-led health research.

Bakita is also a poet. Her recent publications and commissions include the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Wasafiri (Issue 112) and the University of Edinburgh. She uses arts-based methods (namely poetic inquiry) in data collection, analysis and dissemination. She has applied this method in two EPSRC-funded projects: Telling Tales of Engagement and INTUIT. Prior to joining the department, Bakita was the peer researcher on INTUIT, a digital health research programme led by Newcastle University.

Bakita has served on several national and international governance boards. Currently, she is the board chair of Glitch, a charity focused on online safety. Formerly, she was the chair of the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV.

Pronouns: she/her.

• Patients, Citizens & the Politics of Evidence module - TA and guest lecturer (2022/2023)
• UCL Remote Research Methods - Creative Methods panellist (2022/23)
• 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 2020/21)

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School guest lecturer - Health service financing arrangements in example countries (2019/20 and 2020/21)

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School guest lecturer - Community mobilisation and international advocacy for affecting global health (2019/20 and 2020/21)

• PENTA-ID module co-coordinator -  Adolescents, Sexual Health and Living with HIV (2019/20 and 2021/22)

Dr Shema Tariq (UCL) and Bakita Kasadha 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. 

• ACM Best Paper (2022) - Investigating Daily Practices of Self-care to Inform the Design of Supportive Health Technologies for Living and Ageing Well with HIV. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 
• Young Investigator Award (2022) - 12th HIV & Women Workshop
• Highly Commended Poster (2022) - British HIV Association (BHIVA) Spring Conference
• Best Poster Winner (2022) - Children HIV Association (CHIVA) 16th Annual Conference
• Highly Commended Essay (2021) - The Heather Trickey Prize
• Semi-Finalist (2020) - UN Women Feminist and Women’s Movement Action Poetry Contest