We are delighted to announce the award of a new PhD studentship to start in October 2022 as part of the Leverhulme Trust Doctoral programme TRANSFORM. Led by Professor Sharifah Sekalala in the Law School, the award will fund a researcher to investigate the potentials and limitations of digital IDs with biometric features as a prerequisite for accessing health services for marginalised groups in cities.

Sharifah has carried out research on a wide range of issues related to digital health and human rights and has just been awarded a 1.4 million Euro grant from the Wellcome Trust to fund a multi country research project on the migration of health data in Sub Saharan Africa. The successful applicant will therefore be joining a thriving group of scholars with shared interests.

This is an empirical and interdisciplinary project, with a co-supervisor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, which will seek to explore how digital identification projects such as COVID-19 passports impact on health outcomes, especially those deemed most vulnerable. The successful applicant may design a project that focuses on questions of efficacy of ID projects within a rights-based paradigm or they may explore how new digital identification technologies (IDs) transform health service delivery for ‘invisible’ and previously marginalised/vulnerable populations in urban areas.

Projects may focus on specific case studies, focus on vulnerable groups such as those who are traditionally discriminated on the grounds of age, gender, sexuality, or religious orientation, or focus on specific geographical areas in which the consequences of digital ID projects may be felt more acutely.

The deadline for applications is 7 March 2022.

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