Professor Virginia Bond
PhD PG Dip
Professor
Anthropology of Public Health Policy
ZAMBART House
Ridgeway Campus
Lusaka
Zambia
Fax.
I was born and brought up in independent Africa. I trained as a social anthropologist at the Universities of Edinburgh and Hull in the UK. I have always applied anthropology to public health and often worked with large interdisciplinary teams on field-based studies in Zambia and South Africa. To date, I have worked on six community randomised trials, leading the social science components. The most recent CRTs include HPTN 071 (PopART) that aimed to reduce HIV incidence at population level, and TREATS, that is measuring the impact of the PopART package of HIV prevention on Tuberculosis (TB). Since 2001, I have worked with health-related stigma, conducting both research and interventions. I have mostly been based overseas for LSHTM. From 2004 to 2020, I was a director of Zambart, a research institution housed within the School of Public Health at the University of Zambia. I am now Head of Social Science Unit at Zambart and leading professional academic development for Zambart.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
At LSHTM, I am the Module Organiser for DL module on Research Design and Methods in the analysis of Global Health Policy. I also contribute to the Tuberculosis module in DL MSc in Infectious Disease and the AIDS Study Unit, and have contributed to the Medical Anthropology modules (DL and face to face). I have supervised 7 PhD students to successful completion and I am currently supervising 2 PhD students. PhD research has included: HIV (men's role in vaginal microbicides, HIV management in couples and young women living with HIV in Zambia), STIs (ethnography of the management of STIs in a rural Zambia), TB (children's role in managing TB, TB and mental health), community engagement and ethics in CRTs, and, disability (disability groups, the impact of COVID-19 on people with disability). I am currently a mentor for two African scholars (Musonda Simwinga and Collins Iwuji)through a EDCTP fellowship and the LSHTM executive programme. In Zambia and South Africa, I have led training linked to research studies on: academic writing skills; participatory research methods; Broad Brush Surveys; stigma and sexual behaviour research methods; child centred methodologies; household-surveys; study protocols; and ethics. I have helped develop adult education material on raising awareness and challenging HIV and TB stigma. I completed CILT 1 in June 2012. I am committed to building social science capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.
Research
My main theoretical areas of interest are health-related stigma (including TB, HIV, disability, STIs, schistosomiasis and COVID-19), critical social science within community randomised trials and the application of a qualitative methodological approach called 'Broad Brush Surveys' to rapidly assess urban systems to improve public health including water and sanitation nd schistosomiasis. I am an advocate of interdisciplinary public health reseach endeavours and to ethnographic and/or broader understanding of community response to epidemics and health interventions, including community ownership of epidemic management. Building on my experience in Zambia, I am involved in decolonising global health research processes and discussions.
Selected Publications
