Dr Beth Kamunge-Kpodo

My research lies at the intersection of global health justice, law, ethics, and Black feminist thought. I read Law (LLB Hons) at the University of Sheffield on an International Academic Merit Scholarship, which I held throughout my studies. I subsequently completed an LLM in Public International Law (International Human Rights pathway), also at the University of Sheffield. My highly commended master's dissertation examined the effectiveness of international human rights law in protecting women living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

Following my studies, I completed the Bar Training Course at the Kenya School of Law in Nairobi, graduating with Distinction, and was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya (currently non-practising). Prior to entering academia, I spent four years working in the NGO sector across East Africa on projects relating to women's land rights, environmental protection, and reproductive health and rights.

I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield. My doctoral research explored theories of epistemic injustice through Black women's lived experiences and made an original contribution to scholarship on hermeneutical injustice by examining how power shapes the interpretation and recognition of marginalised experiences, with implications for law, justice, and institutional decision-making.

I joined Leicester Law School in September 2023. I currently serve on the Board of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) as Precarity Representative and am the Early Career Researcher Representative for the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at the University of Leicester. I am also Module Convenor for Health Inequalities and Law on the LLM Health Law programme.

My current research focuses on Black maternal mortality, health justice, and international human rights law. I would be delighted to hear from scholars, practitioners, and community organisations with shared interests in these areas.

I primarily engage in empirical, socio-legal research. My research is emancipatory and seeks to centre the perspectives and lived experiences of marginalised and underserved groups. I have a keen interest in black women’s lived experiences of food poverty, health and environmental inequalities and harms, and the (in)effectiveness and  of the law in bringing about social change. During the COVID-19 pandemic I was a Senior Research Assistant in the Centre for Health Law and Society, at the University of Bristol’s School of Law. There I worked with Prof John Coggon on a £1.4 million UKRI funded collaborative research project between the Universities of Oxford, Bristol, Edinburgh, University College London, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, in the Public Health and Health Inequalities workstream. I have extensive experience of public engagement in various contexts within and beyond academia, including disseminating research on the ethics of racialised public health inequalities in a forum in Westminster (May 2022).

• John Coggon & Beth Kamunge-Kpodo, ‘Health Inequalities, Law and Society’ in Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, Sabrina Germain and Jonathan Herring (eds), Diverse voices in Health Law and Ethics : Important Perspectives (Bristol University Press, forthcoming 2025)
• Beth Kamunge-Kpodo, ‘The interaction of human rights and environmental protection in African jurisprudence: a case study of the landmark Ogiek case’. 115th Society of Legal Scholars Conference, University of Bristol School of Law, (2024, 4th September).
• Beth Kamunge-Kpodo, ‘Climate change implications for Land Law research’ (Society of Legal Scholars Researching Property and Trusts Workshop, University of Durham, 2024, June 5th)
• Folúkẹ́ Adébísí and Beth Kamunge-Kpodo, ‘What does it mean to dream of new anticolonial worlds from within the law school?’ Critical Legal Thinking. (2023, November 17th) Available at: https://criticallegalthinking.com/2023/11/17/what-does-it-mean-to-dream-of-new-anticolonial-worlds-from-within-the-law-school/
• John Coggon, Beth Kamunge-Kpodo, The legal determinants of health (in)justice, Medical Law Review, Volume 30, Issue 4, Autumn 2022, Pages 705-723.https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwac050
• Kamunge, B (2022). Place and health inequalities: An ethical framework for developing and evaluating policy. UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. Available online
• Kamunge, B. (2021b) Intersectional approaches to tackling pandemic inequalities. UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. Available online
• Kamunge, B. (2021a) Response to ‘An Equal Recovery’ Inquiry by the Treasury Committee, UK Parliament. Report submission number AER0039. Available online
• Johnson, A., Joseph-Salisbury, R., & Kamunge, B. (Eds.) (2018). The Fire Now: anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence. London: Zed Books.
• Kamunge, B. (2018). Intersectional approaches to food and gender politics in Kenya. Cha Kula, Route to Food: Nairobi. Available online (pp.16-20)
• Kamunge, B., Joseph-Salisbury, R., & Johnson, A. (2018). Changing our fates in The Fire Now. In A. Johnson, R. Joseph-Salisbury, & B. Kamunge (Eds.), The Fire Now: Anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence. London: Zed Books. (pp. 1-12)
• Kamunge, B. Mwangi, W. and Ali, O. (2018). Writing in the Fire Now: Beth dialogues with Wambui and Osop in A. Johnson, R. Joseph-Salisbury, & B. Kamunge (Eds.), The Fire Now: Anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence. London, UK: Zed Books (pp.189-197).

I would welcome PhD thesis proposals in areas broadly related to my research interests including, but not limited to:

• Global Health Law and Justice
• Black maternal mortality
• Racialised health inequalities
• Black women’s participation in global health decision-making

Undergraduate

• Constitutional and Administrative Law (LW1120)
• Advanced Land Law (LW3392)
• Bioethics (LW3550)
• Environmental, Climate Change and Sustainability Law (LW3631)
• Dissertation supervisor (LW3360)

Postgraduate

• Healthcare and Human rights (LW7096)
• Health Law and  Inequalities (LW7298) Module leader

I have previously taught at undergraduate level Law Justice and Society, Land Law and Company Law. At postgraduate level Company Law and Health Inequalities, Law and Society.

• Black maternal mortality
• Racialised health inequalities

• LLB (The University of Sheffield)
• LLM (The University of Sheffield)
• Bar Training Course (Kenya School of Law- Advocate Training Programme)
• Advocate of the High Court of Kenya (currently non-practicicing)
• PhD (The University of Sheffield)
• PgCAPP (University of Leicester)
• Fellow-Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Fellow- Royal Society of Public Health