Themes and projects
Climate, gender and mental health
This project asks how climate variability and change register in mental health and well-being, and why those effects fall differently on women and men. It works across Ghana, combining evidence synthesis on human adaptation with fieldwork on how communities absorb environmental stress.
The lab's longest-running strand. It examines what insecure access to water and food does to households — the coping strategies people adopt, the seasonal patterns behind them, and the psycho-emotional costs that rarely appear in infrastructure statistics. Study sites span urban Ghana and Bangladesh, and the work extends to whether social protection programmes change household water security.
Read more about Food and water insecurity in Ghana and Bangladesh
Flooding, combined sewer overflows and mental health
Ageing sewer infrastructure and more frequent flooding meet in the same neighbourhoods. This project examines what combined sewer overflows mean for environmental quality, public health and community resilience in the United States, and who carries the burden when the system is overwhelmed.
Read more about Flooding, combined sewer overflows and mental health in the United States
Maternal and child health outcomes are shaped as much by where a family lives as by the care available to them. This project compares those outcomes across differing environmental and health-system contexts in Ghana and the United States, including among displaced and marginalised populations.
Read more about Maternal and child health in Ghana and the United States
Who reaches health services, and what stands in the way. The project looks at the determinants of health-service use — trust in institutions, distance, cost, and the condition of the facilities themselves — across Ghana and the United States, with particular attention to water and sanitation in healthcare settings.
Read more about Health service utilisation in Ghana and the United States