Dr Sharli Anne Paphitis

Dr Sharli Anne Paphitis graduated with a PhD in Philosophy from Rhodes University where she was a senior lecturer in Community Engagement and Philosophy from 2014-2019. In 2016 she was awarded the Vice-chancellors distinguished award medal for her critical public health project, Siyahluma, bringing together students, NGOs, and over 2,000 participants to address menstruation stigmas, taboos and hygiene practices in Southern Africa. Since 2017 she has overseen strategic partnerships across multiple research institutes for engaged and participatory projects investigating issues of epistemic injustice inherent in health and development interventions in Southern Africa. She currently leads the South African site of the MRC/AHC funded SHAER project using narrative therapeutic approaches to GBV-related trauma among women in high prevalence settings. She joined Kings College London in January 2020 working primarily with the NHIR Global Health Research Group on a package of care for mental health of survivors of violence in South Asia. She currently runs the PROTECT II study, the Modern Slavery Core Outcome Set (MS-COS) project, and work on the UKRI-funded Violence Abuse and Mental Health Network. 

Research Interests

• Human Agency, Vulnerability, Epistemic Justice
• Domestic Violence, Menstruation, Human Trafficking, Forced Displacement, Violence Against Women, Violent Extremism, and Xenophobia
• Community-based and participatory research methods

Teaching

Sharli currently leads the BSc Psychology 3 Women’s Mental Health Module.

Expertise and Public Engagement

• Associate Researcher at Rhodes University, South Africa.
• Guest Lecturer at the Institute for Biomedical and Medical Education, St George’s University, London

Key publications

Selected Recent publications:

1. Paphitis, S., Bezerra, J., Paterson, C. (Eds.) 2021. Challenging the Apartheids of Knowledge in Higher Education through Social Innovation. South Africa: Sun Press. eISBN: 9781991201058
2. Kasonde, M., Senyurek, G., Ulman, Y., Minckas, N., Hughes, P., Paphitis, S., Andrabi, S., Salem, B., Ahmad, L., Ahmad, A., Mannell, J. 2021. “My story is like a magic wand”: A qualitative study of personal storytelling and activism to stop violence against women in Turkey", Global Health Action 14:1, 1927331, DOI:10.1080/16549716.2021.1927331
3. Bezerra, J and Paphitis, S. 2021. ‘Epistemic Injustice and Land Restitution in the case of Protected Areas: From Policy to Practice’, Society and Natural Resources 33.
4. Paphitis, S. 2020. ‘The possibility of addressing epistemic injustice through engaged research practice’, in Reynolds, L. and Sariola, S. (Eds.) The Ethics and Politics of Community Engagement in Global Health Research. ISBN: 978-0-367-43777-0.
5. Paphitis, S.A. and Kelland, L. 2018. ‘In the Red: Between Research, Activism and Community Development in a menstruation public health intervention’, in C. Macleod, J. Marx, P. Mnyaka and G. Treharne (Ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
6. Srinivas, S. and Paphitis, S.A. 2018. ‘Service-Learning Research Projects to Enhance the Medicines Information Accompanying Commonly Dispensed Medicines on the Phelophepa Health Care Trains’ in Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Anne E. Pfister, and Ginger A. Johnson (Eds.) Healthcare in motion: Mobility forms in health service delivery and access. USA: Berghahn Books.
7. Kelland, L., Paphitis, S. and Macleod, C. 2017. ‘A contemporary phenomenology of menstruation: Understanding the body in situation and as situation in public health interventions to address menstruation-related challenges’ Women's Studies International Forum 63: 33-41.
8. S. 2017. ‘The possibility of addressing epistemic injustice through engaged research practice: Reflections on a menstruation related critical health project’ Critical Public Health. 10.1080/09581596.2017.1418500
9. Paphitis, S.A. and Kelland, L. 2016. ‘The University as a Site for Transformation’ Education as Change 20(2): 184-203.