Dr Sharli Paphitis is a domestic abuse survivor and the co-director of the Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network at King’s College London. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow in Qualitative Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London.

After completing her PhD in the philosophy of action (with a focus on human agency and vulnerability), she became interested in interdisciplinary research and teaching. Sharli is passionate about doing high-impact participatory research to address real world problems in partnership with local communities.

At Rhodes University and King's, she has led community-based participatory research programmes to improve structural conditions, interpersonal relationships, and mental health outcomes for survivors of gender-based violence, xenophobic violence, and human trafficking. She recently edited a book on the important role community-based research can play in higher education for the public good.  

She has lectured across three continents in disciplines including Philosophy, Psychology, Community Development, Advanced Research Methods, and Water Research. She also has a keen interest in research ethics, and served as the chairperson of the Rhodes University ethics review board for several years.

Sharli is also a Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome sufferer and is passionate about research and advocacy about this debilitating and poorly understood disease. When Sharli is not working on scholarly pursuits, she enjoys hiking, making stained glass windows, and painting. 

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 in 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.