My key research areas include epidemic outbreak response and preparedness; gender, sexuality, and reproduction; life with HIV/AIDS, health care provision, and the politics of infectious disease control; Islam and Islamic reformism; Islamic ethics and bioethics; and civil society and collective action. I specialise in working with East African Muslim populations, but have also carried out research in Zimbabwe, as part of a large population-based HIV survey site.

I have conducted in-depth ethnographic fieldwork on life with HIV/AIDS, the rollout of antiretroviral treatment and the management of love, sex and romance on the Swahili coast; pregnancy care and childbirth decision-making in Zanzibar; and projects on the politicisation of AIDS activism; obstetric fistula in South Sudan and misclassification errors in rapid HIV testing in Zimbabwe. I also conduct operational research during outbreak response, including rapid ethnographic appraisals, integrated fact-finding missions on localised outbreaks, death investigations, analyses of risk communication and community engagement strategies, and vaccination campaign support.

I currently lead the Staying Alive project, which investigates how people try to survive in the context of multiple overlapping crises in eastern Zimbabwe; the Integrating Social Science Into the Africa CDC project; and contribute to studies investigating the translation of community feedback into decision making, and on Marburg virus in Guinea Bissau. I also work with the UK-PHRST to develop a social science research strategy for epidemic outbreak response, and as core-deployable member of the UK-PHRST I support epidemic outbreak responses in low- and middle-income countries, most recently the cholera epidemic in Malawi. Beyond infectious disease work, I am interested in everyday practice and the negotiation of sexual and reproductive health in the framework of Islamic bioethics; and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes.