Professor Ghazala Mir

I have research interests in health and social inequalities covering a range of disadvantaged groups as well as the intersections between these, including ethnic and religious minorities, women, young people and people with disabilities.

I have been a health inequalities researcher at the University of Leeds since 1999. I led the Health and Social Care Research Group between 2008 and 2010 and am currently Research Lead at the Nuffield Centre for Health and International Development.

My research projects focus on the experience of people underserved by health services and seldom heard in decision-making about health policy and practice. I am a founder and Chair of the multidisciplinary Inequalities Research Network and have led work to highlight key research priorities in my field; I’m particularly interested in research on interventions that reduce health inequalities.

I was the primary investigator on two UKRI funded projects - Partnerships for Equity and Inclusion and Socially Inclusive Cities, which brought together partners from the UK, Africa and Asia to explore how research can help promote ethnic and religious equality for excluded communities worldwide. Project partners looked at research evidence from across the world on the experiences of people from a range of socially excluded groups and any ways in which public services have tried to reduce unfairness. Our research studies and workshops were conducted in Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Vietnam and the UK, involving voluntary and advocacy organisations that represented people from excluded populations, policymakers, public service professionals and academics.