Jo Vearey
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Jo Vearey is a Professor and the Director of the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand. She holds an Honorary Fellowship with the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, and a Senior Fellowship at the Centre for Peace, Development and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In 2015, Jo was awarded a Humanities and Social Science Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. Jo holds a MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases (LSHTM, 2003), a PhD in Public Health (Wits, 2010), and has been rated by the National Research Foundation as a Young Researcher. In 2014 and 2015, Jo received a Friedel Sellschop Award from the University of the Witwatersrand for outstanding young researchers. She was a Marie Curie Research Fellow in 2013, at the UNESCO Chair on Social and Spatial Inclusion of Migrants, University of Venice (SSIM-IUAV), Venice, Italy.
With a commitment to social justice and the development of pro-poor policy responses, Jo’s research explores international, regional, national and local responses to migration, health, and urban vulnerabilities. Her research interests focus on urban health, public health, migration and health, the social determinants of health, HIV, informal settlements and sex work. Jo is particularly interested in knowledge production, dissemination and utilisation including the use of visual and arts-based methodologies.
Jo has a range of international collaborations, including an ESRC-NRF funded project with the University of Edinburgh, a WOTRO funded project with the VU University, Amsterdam on migration and sex work, and partnerships with the University of Massachusetts Boston and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine‘s Faculty of Public Health and Policy and Gender, Violence and Health Unit.
Posts by Author
Psychosocial effects of forced migration
PODCAST: maHp/ ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey examines the effects of forced migration on people’s health and emotional well-being.
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Towards a migration-aware health system in South Africa: a strategic opportunity to address health inequity
This article provides an overview of the associations between migration and health in South Africa, and calls for the urgent development of ‘migration-aware’ health systems.
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Giving Birth in a Foreign Land: Exploring the Maternal Healthcare Experiences of Zimbabwean Migrant Women Living in Johannesburg, South Africa
In order to inform future research, an exploratory study investigating the maternal healthcare and help-seeking experiences of migrant women living in inner-city Johannesburg was undertaken.
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Urban Health in Johannesburg: Migration, Exclusion and Inequality
Cities of the global south—including Johannesburg—are associated with unplanned and unmanaged urban growth; poor urban governance (which is predominantly reactive rather than proactive); migration and mobility; and the resultant pressure on access to adequate services, including water, sanitation, housing, and healthcare.
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HIV, mobility and migration
In this research project, the role of contemporary population mobility in mediating the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan African (SSA) is explored and recommendations for action to assist in strengthening responses to HIV – including the call for migration-aware programming – in the region will be made.
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Sex work is work
Sex work – the consensual sale of sex between adults – is an important livelihood activity for some migrants in South Africa. In this research area, we explore intersections between sex work, migration, health and well-being.
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Exploring The Migration Profiles of Primary Healthcare Users in South Africa
South Africa’s public healthcare system responses seldom engage with migration. This exploratory study investigates migration profiles and experiences of primary healthcare (PHC) users.
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Migration and sex work in South Africa: key concerns for gender and health
Richter, M. and Vearey, J. (2016) Migration and sex work in South Africa: key concerns for gender and health. In: Gideon, J. (ed) Gender and Health Handbook. Edward Elgar Publishing: UK
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Mobility, migration and generalised HIV epidemics: a focus on sub-Saharan Africa
Vearey, J. (2016) Mobility, migration and generalised HIV epidemics: a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. In: Thomas, F. (ed) Handbook of Migration and Health. Edward Elgar Publishing: UK
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Understanding healthcare and population mobility in southern Africa: The case of South Africa
Migration provides opportunities for health and economic benefits, and has the potential to positively and negatively affect health systems. This paper outlines the authors’ current research and existing responses to migration and health in southern Africa.
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Research ethics in practice: lessons from studies exploring interpersonal violence in different contexts
Studies researching interpersonal violence (IPV) are associated with a range of ethical challenges. In this article, lessons are drawn from three case studies exploring the experiences of different groups of survivors and perpetrators…
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Sex work and South Africa’s health system: Addressing the needs of the underserved
Sex work remains illegal and highly stigmatised in South Africa, resulting in sex workers – the majority of whom are internal or cross-border migrants – experiencing ongoing human rights violations and a high HIV burden.
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Son of the Soil… Daughters of the Land
South Africa’s Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Freedom Charter are globally ground-breaking for providing provisions of non-discrimination, and, of particular note, on the basis of sexual orientation.
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Migration-aware HIV responses in southern Africa
maHp Project Manager Jo Vearey discusses what the International AIDS Conference’s call for ‘Access Equity Rights Now’ mean for migration-aware HIV responses in sub-Saharan Africa on an Ubuntu radio interview (26th July 2016).
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