Beate Ringwald is a lecturer in the Department of Clinical Sciences having joined Liverpool School of Tropical Medicein (LSTM) as a post-doctoral research associate in 2022.

Building on a master’s in Social Education from the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg, Beate obtained a distinction in her Master of Science in International Public Health at the University of Liverpool and the Debbie Quinney prize for the student with the highest marks on the LSTM Master of International Public Health programme. She secured a studentship under the prestigious Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership, obtained a distinction in a Master of Research in Global Health at Lancaster University and completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Global Health awarded by LSTM in 2023.

Her research builds on over 10 years of professional experience in NGO and civil society sectors – designing and delivering programmes using participatory approaches to empower youth, women, and communities in Germany and East Africa. Beate supported the HIV Self-Testing Africa project as a research assistant and joined the Leaving no-one behind: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB Consortium as post-doctoral research associate in 2022. As primary investigator, she secured funding from the British Academy’s Official Development Assistance: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2024 Programme for the Lok ber bedo study. Lok ber bedo, a Luo term that means let’s talk well-being, is the theme of a storytelling research project with young people affected by conflict in Acholi sub-region, Uganda.

Beate is a member of the Centre for Tuberculosis Research Steering Committee, Early Career Research Committee, Masters Ethics Review Panel, and Gender and Health Group.

Beate’s research builds on over 20 years of professional and leadership experience in youth education, gender empowerment, and global health in Europe and Africa. Current projects centre around health equity, focusing on gender-equitable access to tuberculosis care and well-being among young people affected by conflict.

Her approach to gender and health is inclusive of how masculinities and femininities intersect with other social determinants of health, like age, education, occupation, and residence among others. Beate’s doctoral research has illustrated how power and poverty shape experiences of HIV and intimate partner violence among women and men in an informal urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Research with Leaving no-one behind: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB Consortium partners seeks to understand how tuberculosis affects young women and men (Malawi), how they navigate the care cascade (Kenya), how healthcare workers differentiate tuberculosis care for different populations (Kenya), and how tuberculosis survivors promote health in their families and communities (Uganda).

She is trained in quantitative and qualitative research methods but keen to explore participatory arts-based methods research methods that resonate with people and context. Beate’s research with the Leaving no-one behind: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB Consortium engaged men and women with tuberculosis to document their everyday lives and express their perspectives through photography and drawing. The Lok ber bedo study, a research partnership between LSTM and Refugee Law Project, builds on the rich Acholi storytelling culture with the aim to explore the extent to which storytelling can be harnessed to promote collective action to advance ber bedo (well-being) among young people affected by war in Acholi sub-region, Uganda.

Beate teaches qualitative and participatory research methods at LSTM. She has contributed to the LSTM toolkit, ‘Supporting equitable partnerships in global health’ and authored the Leaving no-one behind: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB Consortium Reading List on the ‘Photovoice methodology’. She supervises MSc research projects related to her research (including on tuberculosis and intimate partner violence) and serves on Progress Assessment Panel for LSTM PhD candidates.

In addition, Beate has trained researchers and lay researchers in photovoice methodology, including a photovoice workshop, titled ‘Arts-based participatory approaches to TB research promoting community empowerment and social change: the photovoice methodology’, at the 2023 Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris.

Previously, Beate taught the ‘HIV and intimate partner violence’ session for the HIV Epidemiology, Clinical Management & Strategies in Resource Poor Settings module on LSTM MSc programmes.