Hazel is a human geographer who undertook her degree at the University of Sussex in the School of African and Asian Studies. She then moved to the University of Birmingham to undertake her MA and PhD in West African Studies. Her main areas of research are the socioeconomic aspects of development, in particular gender, health and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last decade her research has been directed at the social and economic aspects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and The Gambia as well as amongst migrant groups in the UK.

More recently her research has focussed on the traditional harmful practice of FGM in Africa and amongst the African diaspora in the EU. She is an internationally recognised expert on FGM. She is a specialist on participatory action methods and community-based participatory research and has published a number of referred papers on this methodology.

She has published books and chapters on health and development issues and has over 40 referred articles to her name. In 1998 she was promoted to Reader in Development Geography and in 2006 she was conferred a Chair in Development Geography. She has been Associate Dean for Applied Research in the Faculty of Business, Environment and Society since 2010. She is President of the Geographical Association (2013-14).

Vision Statement:

In the early 1980s I spent fourteen months lodging with local families in The Gambia when I undertook the research for my PhD. In the process of researching food production and its marketing, it became very clear to me that whilst African women were the main producers of foodstuffs for their families and communities and the main traders in local markets, they suffered poor health and had low levels of education. In fact they were the neglected dimension of development at that time. It was the empathy I had with these hard-working women that inspired me to focus my research on the issues that directly affected women’s livelihoods and in particular their access to human development. Whilst the issue of the role of women in development and their access to the capital assets necessary for development are now high on the political agenda they still have lower levels of education than men and suffer the most serious consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst they suffer inequity in the development process I will continue to undertake research to give them a voice.

FGM; community based-research in African Diaspora EU.HIV/AIDS; Development Geography; Participatory Research Methods; Gender, Human development and Health issues in Africa; Marketing, Agricultural Systems and Rural Development in Africa

In the early 1980s I spent fourteen months lodging with local families in The Gambia when I undertook the research for my PhD. In the process of researching food production and its marketing, it became very clear to me that whilst African women were the main producers of foodstuffs for their families and communities and the main traders in local markets, they suffered poor health and had low levels of education. In fact they were the neglected dimension of development at that time. It was the empathy I had with these hard-working women that inspired me to focus my research on the issues that directly affected women’s livelihoods and in particular their access to human development. Whilst the issue of the role of women in development and their access to the capital assets necessary for development are now high on the political agenda they still have lower levels of education than men and suffer the most serious consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst they suffer inequity in the development process I will continue to undertake research to give them a voice.

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