I completed my PhD at LSHTM in 2021, in the Department of Population Health, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. I have previously studied Archaeology & Anthropology (BA, University College London) after which I worked at the Population Council in Pakistan for two years. This encouraged me to pursue an MSc in Demography & Health at LSHTM; followed by a specialisation in demography and population studies at the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD).
Since 2020, I have worked as Research Fellow at LSHTM, particularly on two projects: "The Evolutionary Demography of Religion" project and the "DREAMS Intervention Evaluation".
Since 2020, I have worked as Research Fellow at LSHTM, particularly on two projects: "The Evolutionary Demography of Religion" project and the "DREAMS Intervention Evaluation".
Affiliations
Department of Population Health
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health
Centres
Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health
Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre
Teaching
I co-organise and teach on the module Population Studies and co-organise the distance learning module Demographic Data: Sources, Collection and Evaluation. I also teach on the modules Demographic Methods, Population, Poverty and the Environment, and Population Dynamics and Projections. I am a personal tutor for students on the MSc Demography and Health, and supervise MSc and PhD students.
Please get in touch if you would like to work with me!
Please get in touch if you would like to work with me!
Research
My research has been interdisciplinary and draws on theory and methods from anthropology, human behavioural ecology and demography. I am motivated by research that promotes the wellbeing of girls and women, have expertise in qualitative and quantitative data collection, and a strong open science ethos. I aim for my research to be non-extractive and co-produced with collaborators and communities in study countries.
Currently, my research topics include fertility, religion, women's autonomy and empowerment, social support networks and women and children's wellbeing. I am particularly interested in cross-cultural variation in women's support networks, including but not limited to support for childcare, and the importance of these networks for women and their family's physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Increasingly, I am keen to explore the impact of disasters such as flooding on women's autonomy and empowerment, and whether support networks help in navigating these disasters.
My PhD explored variation in the provision of resources and care to children under 5-years from parents, extended kin members and non-kin in rural Tanzania, and analysed potential inequalities in child nutritional status resulting from this variation. I addressed my research questions using a mixed methods approach, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data in north-western Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR).
Since 2020 I have worked on the "Evolutionary Demography of Religion" project, leading study design, data collection, and data cleaning and management in Malawi in collaboration with the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU); and co-leading in Bangladesh, India, The Gambia and the USA. I am now analysing these complex multi-sited data for research publications. In 2022, I worked on the 'DREAMS Intervention Evaluation' project. DREAMS aimed at reducing HIV among vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in several countries. My role involved analysing qualitative data with intervention implementors in Kenya to assess how well the intervention was adapted to local context.
I am a member of the Evolutionary Demography Group and Population Studies Group in the Department of Population Health.
Currently, my research topics include fertility, religion, women's autonomy and empowerment, social support networks and women and children's wellbeing. I am particularly interested in cross-cultural variation in women's support networks, including but not limited to support for childcare, and the importance of these networks for women and their family's physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Increasingly, I am keen to explore the impact of disasters such as flooding on women's autonomy and empowerment, and whether support networks help in navigating these disasters.
My PhD explored variation in the provision of resources and care to children under 5-years from parents, extended kin members and non-kin in rural Tanzania, and analysed potential inequalities in child nutritional status resulting from this variation. I addressed my research questions using a mixed methods approach, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data in north-western Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR).
Since 2020 I have worked on the "Evolutionary Demography of Religion" project, leading study design, data collection, and data cleaning and management in Malawi in collaboration with the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU); and co-leading in Bangladesh, India, The Gambia and the USA. I am now analysing these complex multi-sited data for research publications. In 2022, I worked on the 'DREAMS Intervention Evaluation' project. DREAMS aimed at reducing HIV among vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in several countries. My role involved analysing qualitative data with intervention implementors in Kenya to assess how well the intervention was adapted to local context.
I am a member of the Evolutionary Demography Group and Population Studies Group in the Department of Population Health.
Research Area
Child health
Gender
Social and structural determinants of health
Anthropology
Demography
Disease and Health Conditions
Malnutrition
Country
Tanzania
Malawi
Gambia
India
Bangladesh
United Kingdom
United States
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only)
Selected Publications
Shared interests or sexual conflict? Spousal age gap, women's wellbeing and fertility in rural Tanzania
2020
Evolution and Human Behavior
Fathers favour sons, mothers don't discriminate: Sex-biased parental care in northwestern Tanzania.
2019
Evolutionary Human Sciences
Parent-offspring conflict unlikely to explain 'child marriage' in northwestern Tanzania.
2019
Nature Human Behaviour
Father absence but not fosterage predicts food insecurity, relative poverty, and poor child health in northern Tanzania.
2016
American journal of human biology
Religious Involvement Is Associated With Higher Fertility and Lower Maternal Investment, but More Alloparental Support Among Gambian Mothers.
2024
American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council
Religious women receive more allomaternal support from non-partner kin in two low-fertility countries
2024
Evolution and Human Behavior
A practical guide to cross-cultural and multi-sited data collection in the biological and behavioural sciences.
2024
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences