Dr Catherine Dodds has extensive qualitative research and policy analysis experience related to HIV, sexual and reproductive health inequalities, particularly through the use of co-production in research alongside men who have sex with men, trans people, people of Black African ancestry and migrants; as these are as the most disproportionately impacted population groups in the UK context.

Catherine’s research mobilises HIV as a case study for better understanding health inequalities, stigma and the social determinants of global health. Her longstanding commitment to theoretically informed research on stigma has led to high impact health practitioner training tools now in use across the UK.

She has led a team in piloting the re-analysis of an extensive sample of existing qualitative data for secondary analysis, and in doing so has critically explored the impact that the biomedicalisation of HIV has had on policy development and lived experience of HIV across several decades. These effects have been particularly acute for marginalised groups such as gay and bisexual men and trans people; migrants; people of African and Caribbean heritage; people who inject drugs and sex workers.

Catherine is interested in the ways that small (organisational) and larger (city-wide) systems impact on the lived experience and health inequalities of those who are most impacted by HIV, and much of her current work pursues health inequalities research through a policy analysis approach. Most recently she has undertaken policy analysis and advocacy related to the management of Blood Borne Virus (BBV) risk in workplaces and institutions – taking a structural and strategic approach to stigma and harm reduction. This work resulted in guidance that enables organisations to reduce BBV stigma in their day-to-day practice, as well as in their health and safety training and documentation. This has led on to an even more focussed co-produced project to examine the ways that tattoo and piercing artists can reduce BBV stigma and discrimination in their procedures while supporting improved universal health and safety precautions for these precariously-employed workers.

Catherine supervises PhD students undertaking projects on: health inequalities, social determinants of health, epistemic injustice, social justice approaches to health and social care planning; and policy impacts on the health of marginalised communities.