International Guests

Sarah Banks is Professor in the Department of Sociology and co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action at Durham University, UK.  The Centre promotes participatory action research for social justice in partnership with community-based organisations. With the Centre and members of the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research (ICPHR), she has developed ethical guidelines for participatory research and offers training/events for academic and community-based researchers. She has co-led several participatory research projects, including research on debt, poverty and community development, and coordinates the Ethics Working Group of the ICPHR. She is co-editor of Ethics in Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being (Routledge, 2019) and Co-Producing Research: A Community Development Approach (Policy Press, 2019), and co-author of Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being (Springer, 2019).

Michelle Brear is a Senior Research at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health in South-Africa. She has over ten years’ experience executing applied and theoretical qualitatively-driven health social sciences research in international and/or transdisciplinary partnerships. Her scholarship is informed by complexity, sustainability and social justice theories. She aims to work closely with community members and other research stakeholders, to optimise co-learning and social impact. Michelle’s research, which has been based primarily in southern Africa (including South Africa and her home country Eswatini), has been published in methodological, public health and community development journals. It has focused on how people living precariously in rural environments, and vulnerable groups such as young children and older people, experience health, access care and are impacted by the actions of powerful institutions (e.g. governments, corporations). Michelle has also contributed scholarly insights about the process and outcomes of participatory research, for example how it impacts on research ethics and rigour, and human development. Michelle’s current research focuses on the commercial determinants of health, especially how unhealthy food advertising targeting children detrimentally impacts on health.

Pinky Nonhlanhala Shabangu her passion for social justice is rooted in her firsthand experience of the challenges faced by women and children in her community in Eswatini in the continent of Africa. She brings a unique perspective to her research, combining a deep understanding of local issues with a commitment to making a positive impact. Pinky’s work as a community-based co-researcher has allowed her to collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders, including local community members, academic researchers, and policymakers. Through this work, she has developed a keen ability to facilitate dialogue and promote understanding across cultural and disciplinary boundaries while also pursuing her own studies.

Pradeep Narayanan is participatory practitioner working on issues of community engagement and participation around health, education and businesses in India. He is Advisor, Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, and is leading a number of participatory programmes. He is also anchoring global programmes that aim to build narratives around decolonising research and due diligence- called Sindhanai and Global North Dominance Watch.

Marilena von Köppen, M.Sc. Public Health, is doctoral candidate at the Promotionszentrum Public Health at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. She has worked as a research assistant at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences and the Institute for Social Medicine and Health Systems Research (ISMG) at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Her work focuses on participatory social research and participatory action research, ethics of care, applied research ethics, topics in the field of age and participation, and qualitative methods. She is an active member of the Ethics Working Group of the International Collaboration of Participatory Health Research (ICPHR) and co-founding member of PartGroup, a working group for PhD students and early career researchers in PartNet (Network for Participatory Health Research in Germany).