The Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre (HHCC) and the Fight Against Institutional Racism (FAIR) Network at LSHTM are working together to develop a more inclusive approach to research practices and partnerships that challenges the colonial history and legacies of humanitarian research.

Meet the team

The project team will consist of two co-leads – Amber Clarke and Katharina Richter – and one qualitative research assistant, Sali Hafez.

Amber Clarke completed her MSc in Nutrition for Global Health (2017/18) at LSHTM. She is an advisor and coordinator of the Fight Against Institutional Racism (FAIR) Network at LSHTM, a health improvement and disparities researcher at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and a post-graduate student in ‘Culture, Diaspora, Ethnicity’ at Birkbeck, University of London. Amber is committed to rooting her work in disrupting legacies of coloniality in service of social justice.

Katharina Richter has a PhD in Politics from Goldsmiths, and taught politics, development and sustainability at UCL, Birkbeck and Goldsmiths. Her teaching and research foregrounds the role of colonialism in the making of the modern world. She is co-organiser of Degrowth Talks and the author of a handbook on degrowth, written for KS3-KS4 pupils at the Brilliant Club. Her research focusses on degrowth and Buen Vivir in Ecuador, and provides a decolonial framework for the politics of degrowth.

Sali Hafez is an experienced researcher and global health specialist who worked extensively on the intersectionality between health, gender and protection. She is specialising in contextualising and designing evidence based public health and policies in low and middle income settings “From research to Implementation”. For the last 10 years, she has been leading multi-country research, policy making, along with humanitarian and development response in over 15 countries (Including Liberia, Lebanon, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Iraq, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Lebanon and Jordan), with reputable United Nations Agencies, INGOs, and Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 

The project

As part of the project, an HHCC charter will be created to describe what the Centre should aim for in terms of decolonising; this could be a set of practices that HHCC members publicly commit to and measure adherence to, from research conceptualisation and design, to outputs and dissemination. A qualitative piece of research will be undertaken to form the basis of the charter.

The project will also look to foster a community of like-minded individuals passionate about decolonial thinking, and inclusive and equitable practices in humanitarian aid and research.

HHCC members and others connected to the Centre will be invited to take part in surveys, interviews and focus groups to share their experiences and perspectives and help to complete this pivotal project for HHCC. Please look out for invitations to take part over the coming weeks.

The FAIR Network

The FAIR Network is a more formal realisation of the ambitions of Black Lives Matter-LSHTM. While remaining essentially external, the FAIR Network is woven into the fabric of the institution, working more closely with teams, departments and leadership to push for anti-racist praxis, racial equity, historical accountability and radical transformation at the School, until a time when the work can be handed over to the wider community at LSHTM.

Page updated in November 2022 as Bob Okello has been replaced with Sali Hafez