From April 8, 2026 to April 12, 2026; I participated during the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Annual Conference, held at the Hilton Hotel Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. The conference is one of the leading international conferences dedicated to advancing global health research, education, and practice; bringing together researchers, educators, practitioners, and students from universities and institutions across the world to share innovations and evidence-based approaches to pressing global health challenges.

During the conference, I presented a research poster titled "Assessing the Socio-Ecological Factors that Contribute to Intimate Partner Violence among People Living with HIV, in Kayonza District, Rwanda." The poster was selected as the winning submission in the student poster competition under Subtheme 2: The Social and Political Determinants of Health. This recognition was announced at the CUGH 2026 where the award certificate was formally presented during the conference's award ceremony on April 11th, 2026, from 3:30–4:30 PM. This distinction served as a motivation for me as a first year PhD student. 

Beyond the poster presentation, attending CUGH 2026 was a learning experience. Students and academicians from different universities presented their research topics and I had the opportunity to encounter topics that are closely relevant to my own research interests, of which I can consider while writing research grants to fill the literature gap in my home country Rwanda. 

One of the valuable skills that I gained was through a workshop on communication where I learnt how to write opinion editorials (Op-Eds) as a tool for communication. This session provided practical guidance on how researchers can translate complex academic findings into accessible, compelling narratives for public and policy audiences. Learning how to craft Op-Eds is a skill I intend to apply going forward, as effective communication beyond academic circles is increasingly important for driving real-world impact from research.

The conference also provided meaningful opportunities for professional networking. I have met professors and students from my previous university, the University of Global Health Equity and discussed possible collaborations given the skills I am gaining in my PhD, of which I can make them beneficial for my home country Rwanda. In addition,  I made connections with other researchers, faculty members, and fellow students working across diverse global health fields, including those with shared interests in HIV research. I believe that this opens doors for future collaboration, mentorship, and knowledge exchange.

Attending CUGH 2026 was also deeply motivating at a personal level. At a time when global health funding is facing unprecedented pressures and uncertainty, it was inspiring and encouraging to witness so many researchers, practitioners, and students who remain steadfastly committed to the pursuit of health equity and justice. In one panel discussion on financing the future of global health, we were reminded that sovereignty is not about finances, rather, it is about trust, accountability, data and many more. 

I am grateful for the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health for their continuous support towards my journey of being an academician and researcher in the future.

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Supported by SSHRC, the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, and Mitacs, the project fielded a team of eight community-based surveyors who are conducting over 600 household surveys every month and completing bimonthly mapping of all 300 water sources across the three communities. The communities were selected to reflect Freetown's geographic diversity, from low-lying coastal areas to hillside settlements, as well as their varying relationships with local government and their mix of public, private, and community-managed water infrastructure.

"I have a strong background in quantitative research methods, and I want to employ them as rigorously and thoroughly as possible to find their real limits," said Waters. "While grappling with those limits, I'm employing the qualitative, ethical, and relational research methodologies that EUC has taught me to critically engage with those limits and push the water security research just a little bit further."

The study deploys the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale alongside original survey instruments, JMP standards, and water source interviews, pushing these state-of-the-art tools to their quantitative limits to explore both what they can reveal and where even their best measurements fall short. All eight surveyors were drawn from the study communities themselves, grounding the data collection in local knowledge and ensuring a level of community trust that is rarely achievable through outside research teams alone.

Waters arrived in Freetown in October 2025 and returned home in late February. The study will continue through November 2026, capturing seasonal variation, price fluctuations, and source failures in ways that one-time assessments cannot. The resulting dataset is expected to contribute to ongoing debates at the United Nations and in global water policy circles about how water security is measured and what even the best available tools cannot fully capture.

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The annual conference drew a broad variety of stakeholders engaged in tuberculosis (TB), including scientists and researchers, representatives from technical and donor agencies, governmental officials, the private sector, and activists affiliated with civil society and TB survivors-led organizations. Yuliya, who is researching global TB funding flows for her doctoral dissertation in Anthropology, integrated participant observation activities at the conference. She followed conference discussions about funding and heard stories of the devastating impact on the lives of people affected by TB following the abrupt suspension of U.S. foreign aid and ongoing shrinking of international development aid to countries severely affected by TB. Yuliya notes that in the current funding crisis and evolving changes in the global health architecture, civil society and community-based organizations live through uncertainties reflected in short-term operational focus which impact provision of services and ability to address social and structural barriers experienced by people affected by TB. Despite this, communities demonstrate commitment to equitable and people-centered models of TB care, which challenge normative narratives emphasizing biomedical ‘life-saving’ interventions over psycho-social interventions that are needed to address TB’s broader social determinants. 

Yuliya reflects on the importance of community-led participatory action research collaborations between academia, TB civil society and affected community organizations presented at this year’s conference that speak about unique ways of advancing equity in TB. In a symposium entitled, “From Research Conceptualization to Scientific Publication: A Community Actor’s Journey with TB Research”, the civil society network TB Europe Coalition shared their experience with community-driven publishing.  Yuliya contributed to this panel by emphasizing the value of communities’ experiential, lived knowledge and sharing tips about centering community perspectives while preparing peer-review manuscripts. Dr Amrita Daftary, Associate Professor at the School of Global Health and faculty fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute, also spoke at this panel, showcasing how different contributions from researchers and community representatives can take form within a scientific publication in ways that reflect authentic and equitable community-research partnerships. Dr Daftary is on Yuliya’s dissertation committee, and founding lead of a TB social science network, Social Science and Health Innovations for Tuberculosis or SSHIFTB.  

In another session with the TB Europe Coalition, entitled, “Integrating Gender-Related Knowledge into the National Medical Training Curriculum and Healthcare Workplace Practices”, Yuliya and Dr Daftary delved into the integration of social science methods into mainstream TB responses, specifically on how gender and equity theories, may help to translate political commitments around equity into action. They discussed how social science methods can channel the voice and realities of communities, and enable critical engagement with structural drivers of inequity, like governance, politics and power more naturally and humanistically than conventional biomedical or biotechnological methods used in TB research.

Yuliya is supported in her doctoral research by Dr Maggie McDonald (supervisor), Dr Sandra Widmer, and Dr Amrita Daftary, all faculty fellows at the Dahdaleh Institute. Yuliya received funding support to participate in the 2025 Union conference from the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, SSHIFTB, as well as the McGill International TB Centre.

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In June 2025, Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar Ana Carolina de Almeida Cardoso attended the 62nd Session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or "SB62", to follow climate negotiations and carry research-related activities.

This session takes place in Bonn, Germany, every year, marking the halfway point between COPs. There, countries, represented by their delegations and negotiators, are expected to resume the debates around the many thematic issues that are being negotiated in the international climate system. The specific goals of the SB meeting are to build consensus on these agenda items, and to work on draft negotiation texts to be officially adopted at the next COP.

Ana attended the meeting as one of the key fieldwork opportunities of her doctoral research. She has been attending UNFCCC events since 2023 as part of her PhD research on global climate politics, climate futures and decoloniality. In Bonn, Ana continued engaging with climate negotiations as part of the Women and Gender constituency (WGC), particularly following and collaborating on advocacy work within the Just Transition negotiations, which is one of the main thematic priorities of the COP30 Presidency.

Just transition is a concept that emerged from the labour movement in so-called United States, demanding that no one is left behind in the transition towards renewable energy systems. Since, just transition has grown to encompass larger aspirations of systemic change: it is about ensuring a transition away from fossil fuels and from extractive-based economies, and moving towards post-growth paradigms that enact deeply inclusive and collective visions of society.

Ana also participated in important climate justice actions that took place during the event, such as the second edition of Just Transition Rising, and actions for an Amazon free of oil. As a native Portuguese speaker, she often volunteers to support Indigenous leaders from Brazil and has had the honour to translate their important words to English-speaking crowds.

Finally, Ana supported the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) alongside research team members from the �첥��Ƶ's Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages (CIKL) project "Indigenous Climate Leadership and Self Determined Futures", Dr. Angele Alook, Dr. Graeme Reed, Lydia Johnson and Hector Jenkins. They participated in the 13th meeting of the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) from June 10-13, and in the Indigenous Peoples Caucus to support the safeguarding of the rights, knowledges and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples in climate negotiations, demanding full and effective participation in decision-making processes such as the SB62 and COP30. 

Later this year, COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, during the month of November, and Ana will be there to carry on her research-activism work – this time, in her own country.

"I am extremely grateful for the travel support from the Dahdaleh Institute that enabled my participation at the SB62, where I was able to conduct fieldwork for my doctoral research, strengthen my research and advocacy partnerships, form new professional and academic connections, and improve my knowledge and experience of international climate negotiations. One major goal of this travel to Germany was working on the interviews for my dissertation, which I was able to do thanks to the support that I received from the Dahdaleh.

As before, I went deep into the Just Transition negotiations, coming from disappointment as we left COP29 without any decision. Last year, there was significant disagreement in the negotiation room, including about “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, a part of the text that also sparked controversy amongst negotiators this time, even though there was significantly more progress. This shows the need for civil society and the academy to keep showing up in the negotiations, making interventions, contributions, and to keep pressuring countries to recognize the relevant science in the climate agreements, or we risk having the same disappointing outcome at COP30 in November.

This opportunity was fundamental for my doctoral research, but it goes well beyond this degree, being extremely significant for my academic, professional, and personal growth. It has given me knowledge, experience, and relationships that will likely shape my career and my life as a climate advocate going forward."

— Ana Carolina de Almeida Cardoso, Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar

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Held in-person in the Institute’s boardroom, the event was structured into two interactive sessions:

Morning Session: Statistical Methods for Global Health

Participants explored key inferential tools—Chi-square tests, t-tests, ANOVA, nonparametric alternatives, and linear and logistic regression—paired with live demonstrations in Stata. The focus was on practical application and interpretation, helping bridge theory with real-world research.

Afternoon Session: Causal Inference in Observational Health Data

Dr. Dusing guided attendees through concepts such as Propensity Score Matching (PSM), Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW), and regression adjustment using weights. With hands-on examples in Stata, participants were able to understand the application of advanced causal techniques to health data.

The workshop stood out for its interactive format. Questions spanned basic theory to advanced application, reflecting the diverse experience levels in the room. A lunch break and a post-session Q&A created space for deeper discussion, mentorship, and community building—capped off with a relaxed social at Aroma.

Dr. Dusing—whose research leverages health administrative data to examine equity in health and health systems—offered not just expertise but a welcoming, collegial approach that encouraged open exchange and critical thinking.

This workshop clearly demonstrated a demand for more skill-sharing opportunities where students can sharpen their methodological toolkits and build community in a welcoming space. The DI Scholars Club is deeply appreciative of the Dahdaleh Institute for supporting such student-led initiatives.

Stay tuned for more PD events organized by the DI Scholars Club.

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It has not been my first participation in the annual Union Conference. In fact, I have attended these events numerous times, both as a participant and as a presenter, throughout my professional career in the field of global health. This year, however, I joined the event in the new role of a PhD candidate in social anthropology, an early-stage ethnographer of the global TB policy making and resource allocations. The Union Conference, as a social gathering where ideas, discourses, and networks entangling the global TB response develop and reproduce, was the perfect place to gain new insights and reflect on the meanings embedded in a social space of this international global health event.

One aspect of my observation was focused on the authority and aesthetics of knowledge creation. The Union Conference program includes plenary and expert sessions, workshops and post-graduate courses, oral abstract sessions and electronic posters, as well as TBscience, symposia and satellite sessions.  The Conference agenda is decided through a competitive process of abstract selection, with assessment and peer-reviewing processes aligned with public imaginations of what is credible and legitimate to generate, validate and disseminate knowledge. For the Union Conference 2024, the Coordinating Committee of Scientific Activities assessed 2576 abstracts, all of which underwent peer-review by at least three reviewers.  Although I have benefited from attending various sessions that disseminate authoritative knowledge on the challenges and solutions in the global TB response, it is the experience of immersing myself in the aesthetics of knowledge creation—incorporating sensory, emotional, and artistic dimensions—that has become the most meaningful for me. I owe this experience to Paulina Siniatkina, an artist, activist and TB survivor who enriches the space of the global TB response with alternative arts-based methods of knowing.  

Most of The Union Conference’s sessions and workshops are characterized by podiums and microphones, twilight and solemnity in the auditoriums, with entrance by QR-code registration badge being scanned and presence counted. Still, the conference also provides an opportunity to engage with other ways of knowing and belonging. In this regard, I reflect on a safe and informal space created by Paulina for important conversations about one’s own experience and role in the global TB response happening at a kitchen table covered with a homey-feeling white and red checkered tablecloth. The project, which Paulina named a “Non-Violent Kitchen Table” has been supported by KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, and conceived by her as a socially engaging art performance, built on the concept of trauma sensitivity and designed to work with affected communities. Quite symbolically, the kitchen table has been located at the so-called “Community Connect” area of The Union Conference. The area, which I would describe as integral, but somewhat separate from other conference events, where authoritative knowledge has been generated and disseminated, served as a social space where people chilled, networked, created ideas and explored avenues for future collaborations.

Joining the kitchen table, one meets Paulina and two other interlocutors to share the ideas and stories related to TB which they find important to them. Paulina started the session with her story of being sick with TB and the struggle she faced in taking countless antibiotics pills daily. One day, before taking the medicines, she poured the pills out of the medicine box and assembled them in patterns on a surface. This became a ritual, marking each day on her way to recovery. This ritual of transforming pills to patterns gave Paulina a sense of control and somehow eased her suffering from the inevitability of daily TB antibiotics,  helping her get through the long 10 months of treatment, 7 of which she spent in the hospital. Paulina’s experience mirrored the worldwide disparity in access to shorter TB treatment regimens with fewer side effects and set the tone for our conversation.  

Afterwards, Paulina handed us a small pill case with sweets-looking-like-medicines and invited us to share our stories while creating patterns, the way she did while on treatment. While my hands were occupied with assembling the patterns and changing the created forms to the new ones, I listened to the stories around Paulina’s kitchen table and reflected on a feeling of connection, care, and a sense of belonging to the community of people aiming to find the ways of ending suffering from the TB disease. Immersion in visual, sensory and emotional aspects of the arts-based methods of knowing, creative self-expression related to the aesthetics of knowledge production had a tremendous impact on my self-reflection and feeling of belonging and solidarity for a cause.  Although aesthetic knowledge is considered subjective and may not count towards evidence-based models that dominate authoritative knowledge production, this form of knowing really matters, especially because of its subjectivity. I believe that the subjective nature of our understanding and emotional engagement with expressive works shapes our knowing of self and grounds the potential for change by inspiring meanings that resonate deeply with our hearts.

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