Bakita Kasadha

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

I previously worked on INTUIT, an EPSRC-funded digital health project exploring how people with HIV use digital tools and how those tools support them to manage their HIV and general wellbeing (led by Newcastle University). I write for NAM aidsmap and recently interviewed people living with HIV for Terrence Higgins Trust's Last Chance for Justice blog series, focusing on the Contaminated Blood Scandal.    

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. I hold a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing from the University of Surrey. I am keen to explore how poetic inquiry can be implemented in data analysis and dissemination.    

Dr Shema Tariq (UCL) and I are co-editing a special collection of writing on HIV and women: Women's Health journal and Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease journal. Submissions are open for original research (any methods including archival research) and reviews. The deadline is 1 October 2021.