The Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa (IDCPPA) and the Centre for Social Sciences Research at the University of Cape Town invites you to join us for a seminar on 15 November 2022. Dr Wanga Zembe-Mkabile and Dr Zoe Duby will be presenting on the topic: Qualitative research experiences in the SAMRC's Health Systems Research Unit.

Summary:  Researchers from the SAMRC's Health Systems Research Unit share their experiences of conducting qualitative studies. Zoe Duby outlines experiences with the HERStory qualitative evaluation studies of an intervention for adolescent girls and young women in South Africa, highlighting challenges conducting studies during the COVID pandemic, and looking at methodological challenges of conducting research into sexual behaviour. Dr Wanga Zembe shares her views and experiences of decolonial methodology; the ethics of qualitative research; and the impact of conducting research in contexts of deprivation on herself as an insider-outsider researcher within the institutional positivist paradigm.

Speakers: 

Dr Wanga Zembe-Mkabile is a Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. She is also a senior research fellow at the Southern African Social Policy Research Institute and UNISA under the South African Research Chair in Social Policy. Her research focuses on social determinants of health; specifically, poverty, deprivation and inequality in the context of maternal and child health and wellbeing. Her main interests are research and teaching on social determinants of health using a Social Policy lens.

Dr Zoe Duby is a socio-behavioural researcher, with a focus on HIV and sexual and reproductive health. She is currently working as a Qualitative Specialist Scientist in the Health Systems Research Unit, at the SA Medical Research Council in Cape Town. Zoe is an Honorary Research Associate at the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Zoe’s expertise lies in qualitative research in the field of HIV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on women, adolescents and key populations.