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Samia Akhter-Khan

Samia Akhter-Khan

PhD Student

Research interests

  • Mental Health

Biography

Samia Akhter-Khan is a PhD candidate at the Health Service & Population Research Department. Her PhD project, supervised by Rosie Mayston and Matthew Prina, focuses on older adults’ loneliness in Southeast Asia. Applying both quantitative and qualitative methods, she explores the relationship between unpaid productive activities, such as caregiving and volunteering, and older adults’ loneliness from Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar, and explores solutions to loneliness using participatory approaches. Within her PhD work, Samia developed the Social Relationship Expectations Framework, a new theory for understanding loneliness, for which she received the APA Early Career Outstanding Paper Award 2023. Samia received a PhD fellowship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and a KCL Public Engagement Grant for her participatory action research project in northern Thailand.

Prior to joining King’s in 2021, Samia completed a BSc and MSc degree in Psychology at the Humboldt University Berlin. During her studies, she also spent a semester at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, two semesters at Duke University in the US, and one year in Myanmar for her master’s thesis research on older adults’ loneliness. In Myanmar, Samia volunteered with a local human rights organization and worked for HelpAge International.

Between 2020 and 2023, she also worked for Boston University School of Medicine investigating pathways from loneliness to Alzheimer’s disease using data from the Framingham Heart Study. For this work, Samia received the NIH-funded Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program pilot grant from Boston University. At King’s, Samia also worked on a World Health Organization report on climate change and healthy ageing.

Research Interests

Samia is interested in ageing and global mental health research, with a specific focus on exploring solutions to older adults’ loneliness. Her research applies interdisciplinary approaches, mixed methods, participatory action research, implementation science, and aims to foster international collaborations. Samia’s interests include valuing older people’s contributions, bridging the gap between science and practice, and early intervention.

  • Ageing
  • Loneliness
  • Care and unpaid productive activities
  • Mental health in Southeast Asia
  • Mixed methods
  • Precision health
  • Participatory action research

Expertise and Public Engagement

Samia is passionate about science communication and networking, within and across academic and non-governmental sectors. She is a board member of the Myanmar-Institute e.V., a network of researchers working on issues relating to Myanmar. Following the military coup in 2021, Samia has been writing blog posts and newspaper articles, organising political campaigns, and helping journalists and activists leaving Myanmar.

At Duke University, Samia became a member of the Duke Revaluing Care in the Global Economy Network. She mentored students from different disciplines interested in valuing informal unpaid care, contributed work to the working paper seminar series, and created an online exhibition of her photovoice project with older migrants from Myanmar in Thailand. Since 2023, she has been on the advisory board for the research network.

Within these networks, Samia has participated in and helped organise several international conferences. Samia’s work has been featured in Science Magazine, The Guardian, BBC radio, Daily Mail, The Times, The Independent, and other outlets. She has contributed multiple blog posts, e.g., for the British Society of Gerontology, and spoken on podcasts for the Association for Psychological Science and Science Magazine. For updates on future projects and public engagement, follow Samia on Twitter.

Further details

See Samia's research profile

    Research

    iStock-506102084
    Centre for Global Mental Health (CGMH)

    The Centre for Global Mental Health (CGMH) aims to address inequities by closing the care gap, and to reduce human rights abuses experienced by people living with mental, neurological and substance use conditions, particularly in low resource settings with a view to contributing to a world where all people living with mental, neurological and substance use disorders can live a life of meaning and dignity.

    qualitative research
    Qualitative Research Group

    Qualitative Research Group is an interdisciplinary team of methodologists comprising social scientists, experts by experience, and health practitioners

    News

    Volunteering and caring for grandchildren protects from loneliness for the over 50s

    Caregiving for a spouse or partner is associated with higher loneliness for those over 50 years of age, a new systemic review of published research on the...

    784x440px_grandparents

    Events

    02MaySamia Akther Khan_Photovoice event

    Photovoice, Care, and Loneliness: A photo exhibition by Myanmar older migrants living in Thailand

    A photography exhibition presenting findings from PhD field work with older migrants from Myanmar living in Mae Sai, northern Thailand.

    Please note: this event has passed.

      Research

      iStock-506102084
      Centre for Global Mental Health (CGMH)

      The Centre for Global Mental Health (CGMH) aims to address inequities by closing the care gap, and to reduce human rights abuses experienced by people living with mental, neurological and substance use conditions, particularly in low resource settings with a view to contributing to a world where all people living with mental, neurological and substance use disorders can live a life of meaning and dignity.

      qualitative research
      Qualitative Research Group

      Qualitative Research Group is an interdisciplinary team of methodologists comprising social scientists, experts by experience, and health practitioners

      News

      Volunteering and caring for grandchildren protects from loneliness for the over 50s

      Caregiving for a spouse or partner is associated with higher loneliness for those over 50 years of age, a new systemic review of published research on the...

      784x440px_grandparents

      Events

      02MaySamia Akther Khan_Photovoice event

      Photovoice, Care, and Loneliness: A photo exhibition by Myanmar older migrants living in Thailand

      A photography exhibition presenting findings from PhD field work with older migrants from Myanmar living in Mae Sai, northern Thailand.

      Please note: this event has passed.