Professor Hazel Barrett

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 and Law since 2010. She is President of the Geographical Association (2013-14).

• Brown, K, Beecham, D & Barrett, H, (2013), The applicability of behaviour change in intervention programmes addressing FGM in the EU: integrating social cognitive and community level approaches. Obstetrics & Gynaecology International 2013, 324362.
• Barrett, H R, Brown, K, Beecham, D, Otoo-Oyortey, N & Naleie, Z. (2011) REPLACE Pilot Toolkit for replacing approaches to ending FGM in the EU: implementing behaviour change with practising communities. Coventry University, Coventry. ISBN 978-1-84600-0430
• Barrett,H.R. & Mulegueta, B. (2010). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and migrant “risk environments”: The case of the Ethiopean and Eritrean immigrant community in the West Midlands of the UK. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 15 (3), 357-369.
• Barrett, H.R. (2007) Too little, too late: responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. Geography, 92 (2), 87-96.
• Browne, A.W. and Barrett, H.R. (2001) Moral boundaries: the geography of health education in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. Geography, 86 (1), 23-36.
• Young, L.C. and Barrett, H.R. (2001) Adapting visual methods: action research with Kampala street children. AREA, 33, (2), 141-152.
• Young, L.C. and Barrett, H.R. (2001) Ethics and participation:  reflections on research with street children. Ethics, Place & Environment, 4, (2), 130-134.
• Young, L.C. and Barrett, H.R. (2001) Issues of access and identity:  adapting research methods with Kampala street children. International Journal of Childhood, 8, (3), 383-395.
• Barrett, H R, Ilbery, B, Browne, A W & Binns, T, (1999) Globalization and the changing networks of food supply: the importation of fresh horticultural produce from Kenya into the UK. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 24(2),159-74.
• Barrett, HR, Browne, AW, Harris PJC & Cadoret, K (2001), Smallholder farmers and organic certification: accessing the EU market from the developing world. Biological Agriculture and Horticulture, 19, 183-199.

• CHANGE Plus; Promoting Behaviour Change towards the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation in Practising Communities and Community-Based Advocacy

• REPLACE 2: Researching FGM intervention programmes linked to African communities in the EU: EC Daphne III funded, 2013-15 (24 months) £546,000. This project is a continuation of REPLACE I and is a two year project which will evaluate and monitor the implementation of the REPLACE Framework to ending FGM amongst a range of FGM affected diaspora groups in five EU countries. The REPLACE Framework will be refined as a result of the evaluation.

• REPLACE1: Researching FGM intervention programmes linked to African communities in the EU: EC Dapne III funded, 2010-2011 (12 months) £151,000. This one year pilot study used community-based participatory research methods to understand the barriers to ending FGM amongst Somali and Sudanese communities in the UK and Netherlands. The study used a health behavioural change approach to develop  a new REPLACE framework for communities to use to work towards ending FGM.

• COMBAT: Combining against trafficking: EC Daphne III funded, 2010-2011 (24 months) £20,000. This two year project aimed to raise awareness of the trafficking of children and young women in Bulgaria, Lithuania and UK. The project involved developing training and awareness raising materials ande delivering them to front line professionals, non front line professionals and young people perceived to be vulnerable to or at risk of trafficking.

• Jamaica PRIDE: promoting rural integrated development and enterprise: a participatory business model for organic agro-tourism. EU Banana Support Programme, 2008-2009  (12 months) £217,000. A study of alternative sources of livelihood income for a rural community previously dependent on banana as a cash crop.

• Social and environmental disturbance: impacts on fertility and poverty in Africa. ESRC funded, 1994-1997 (36 months). £78,000. Research examined the disturbances of rural out-migration, high morbidity associated with HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as environmental degradation including drought in Zambia. This was found to be linked to increasing birth rates and rising level of rural poverty.

• The prospects for horticulture exports under trade liberalisation in adjusting African countries. Overseas Development Administration (ODA) funded, 1994-97 (24months) £66,000. A study of high value horticultural exports from Kanya and The Gambia to UK supermarkets.

• Organic farming in sub-Saharan Africa: prospects and implications for policy. Overseas Development Administration (ODA) 1995-7 (24 months) £82,000. A study of the barriers and policy implications to organic agriculture in Ghana and Kenya.