London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

In an era of significant aid budget cuts by major international donors, humanitarian research is more vital than ever – to ensure accountability, inform action, and amplify the lived experiences of people affected by crises.

At this year’s Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre annual event, we are delighted to welcome Professor Neve Gordon from Queen Mary University of London for a keynote lecture exploring the question: "Outside the ivory tower: how should researchers confront injustice and oppression?".

The event will also feature a showcase of humanitarian health research across LSHTM, with researchers presenting quick-fire talks on their current projects. This year's themes, mortality estimation in conflict settings and elevating the voices of crisis-affected populations, highlight the Centre’s commitment to generating evidence that both counts and connects.

Please join us after the event for soft drinks and refreshments in the Pumphandle Social from 19:00 to 20:00.

Programme

17:30 - 17:35 Welcome

Speaker: Dr Carine van der Boor

17:35 - 18:00 Keynote lecture: "Outside the ivory tower: how should researchers confront injustice and oppression?"

Speaker: Professor Neve Gordon, School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

18:00 - 18:30 HHCC research showcase – session A: Mortality estimation in crisis settings: making the data count

• War-time mortality in Sudan: a multiple systems estimation analysis - Dr Maysoon Dahab
• The hidden toll of violent deaths during pregnancy and the postpartum period: insights from Mexico - Maria Gargiulo
• The politics and challenges of measuring mortality for humanitarian decision-making - Dr Jennifer Palmer
• Session Q&A - moderated by Dr Nada Abdelmagid

18:30 - 19:00 HHCC research showcase – session B: Amplifying voices: Humanitarian action and its lived reality

• Say the "F" word: Famine and the need for a collective voice in Sudan - Samantha Olson
• "I've never experienced violence, but fear is always there": women's experiences of ambivalent sexism during the COVID-19 responses in Syria - Mervat Alhaffar
• Caring under pressure: experiences of national and Rohingya refugee health workers during infectious disease outbreaks in Cox's Bazar - Georgia Venner
• Session Q&A - moderated by Professor Bayard Roberts

19:00 - 20:00 Reception

Soft drinks and refreshments are served in the Pumphandle Social Bar

Speaker

Keynote speaker

Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon is a professor of human rights law at Queen Mary University of London and a Fellow of the British Academy for Social Sciences. His first book, Israel’s Occupation, provided a structural history of Israel’s mechanisms of control in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. His second book, The Human Right to Dominate was written with Nicola Perugini and examines how human rights, which are generally conceived as tools for advancing emancipation, can also be used to enhance subjugation and dispossession. Most recently, he wrote with Perugini the first book on the legal and political history of human shielding. Gordon has been a member at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, the University of Michigan, and SOAS. He writes regularly for the popular press.

Research showcase – session A

Maysoon Dahab

Maysoon Dahab is an assistant professor at LSHTM and the co-director of the Sudan Research Group. Her primary focus is operational humanitarian health research. She has previously conducted research with organisations in Malawi, Ethiopia, South Africa, as well as collaborating with the Sudan Federal Ministry of Health.

Maria Gargiulo

Maria Gargiulo is a PhD candidate at LSHTM. She uses demographic and statistical methods to study human rights violations. Her dissertation work focuses on the under-documentation of violence and its impacts during conflicts in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. Additionally, she moonlights as a statistician with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.

Jennifer Palmer

Jennifer Palmer, an associate professor at LSHTM, is an anthropologist with a multi-disciplinary background. Most of her work seeks to highlight the social and political dimensions of public health programming in settings affected by crises. She is a contributor to the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform and is a social scientist with UK's Public Health Rapid Support Team.

Research showcase – session B

Samantha Olson

Samantha Olson is an emergency nurse and experienced humanitarian professional, with a Research Fellow appointment at LSHTM, where she has mainly conducted work on modelling malnutrition in Sudan, complementing earlier investigations of Sudanese mutual aid humanitarian efforts. She has worked as a clinician and project coordinator in multiple humanitarian responses.

Mervat Alhaffar

Mervat Alhaffar is a Research Fellow at LSHTM. As a public health social sciences researcher, she focusses her work on conflict settings in the Arab World. Previous research includes investigations into health systems in Syria, mortality in Yemen, governance of vaccination within crisis settings and violence against women and children. She is the co-founder of the Syria Research Group.

Georgia Venner

Georgia Venner is a PhD candidate at LSHTM and an humanitarian consultant. Using qualitative and medical anthropological methods, her doctoral research explores how responding to infectious disease outbreaks have impacted frontline healthcare workforces, including refugee health workers, in crisis settings. Recently, her consultancy work has focused on Ukraine with WHO, NIRAS, and LSHTM on a range of research and capacity-building projects.

Event notices

• Please note that you can join this event in person or you can join the session remotely.
• Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available.