Associate Professor Steve Bell

Honorary Associate Professor

School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

A/Prof Stephen Bell is a senior social scientist at the Burnet Institute, and Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Public Health, andhas 22 years’ experience across South-East Asia (India, Nepal), Africa (Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe) and Western Pacific (Australia, Indonesia, PNG, Fiji) Regions. He works respectfully with not-for-profits, public institutions, businesses and community organisations, using innovative, inclusive, people-centred approaches to identify sustainable solutions to critical health challenges and accelerate health equity.

Steve’s work brings together lived experience, socio-ecological systems thinking and social theory to understand what works (or not) in global health and social development. He has researched and published widely on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, neglected tropical diseases, TB and Indigenous health. He is particularly interested in understanding the socio-structural determinants of health and social inequities, and injustices associated with marginalisation due to gender, sexuality, age and geography. He has also published two books on interpretive and community-led approaches in research, design, monitoring and evaluation: ‘Peer research in health and social development: international perspectives on participatory research’ (2021), and ‘Monitoring and evaluation in health and social development: interpretive and ethnographic perspectives’ (2016). He is currently taking on new PhD students in these areas, so please do reach out to him at the Burnet Institute for a chat!

He holds associate professorial appointments at UNSW Sydney and The University of Queensland, and is a Member of the International Editorial Boards at Culture, Health & Sexuality and BMC Public Health. Steve serves as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, and has worked in research and consultancy roles with international governments, NGOs, UNAIDS, UNFPA and WHO.

Research Interests

  • Socio-structural determinants of health and wellbeing
    Critical qualitative enquiry; lived experiences research; operation of determinants of health; production of health inequities
  • Community action, activism and resistance for social justice and health equity
    Community-based participatory research; working with community researchers; understanding operations of power; social change; role of community organisations and collectives; theorising agency
  • Sexual, reproductive and maternal health of young people
    Youth-led co-design of services, programs and policies; qualitative research design; health and social risks; agency and action; sex-positive and rights-based approaches
  • Community-based HIV research with key populations
    Individual and collective agency; forms of solidarity and action; concepts of agency, vulnerability and social practice; community-led innovation in HIV testing, treatment and care
  • Innovation in qualitative, participatory and ethnographic research
    Community-led research; working with community researchers; longitudinal research design; photovoice; peer research; participatory video

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University College London
  • Masters (Coursework), University College London
  • Bachelor, University College London

Publications

View all Publications

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Aeno, Herick, Mitchell, Elke, Ase, Sophie, Trumb, Richard Nake, Ofi, Priscilla Selon, Kelly-Hanku, Angela and Bell, Stephen (2023). Socio-structural influences on young men's experiences of sex, pregnancy and pregnancy prevention in Papua New Guinea. Sex and gender in the Pacific. (pp. 109-122) edited by Angela Kelly-Hanku, Peter Aggleton and Anne Malcolm. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003142072-11

  • Bell, Stephen, Aggleton, Peter and Gibson, Ally (2021). Peer research in health and social development: Understandings, strengths and limitations. Peer research in health and social development: international perspectives on participatory research. (pp. 3-19) edited by Stephen Bell, Peter Aggleton and Ally Gibson. Abingdon, Oxon United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429316920-2

  • Bell, Stephen and Aggleton, Peter (2016). Interpretive and ethnographic perspectives: Alternative approaches to monitoring and evaluation practice. Monitoring and evaluation in health and social development: interpretive and ethnographic perspectives. (pp. 1-14) edited by Stephen Bell and Peter Aggleton. Abingdon, Oxon United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315730592-1

  • Robson, Elsbeth, Bell, Stephen and Klocker, Natascha (2007). Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people. Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth. (pp. 135-148) edited by Ruth Panelli, Samantha Punch and Elsbeth Robson. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203942222-20

  • Bell, Stephen (2007). 'The child drums and the elder dances'?: Girlfriends and boyfriends negotiating power relations in rural Uganda. Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth: Young Rural Lives. (pp. 179-192) New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203942222

  • Punch, Samantha, Bell, Stephen, Costello, Lauren and Panelli, Ruth (2007). Power and place for rural young people. Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth: Young Rural Lives. (pp. 205-218) edited by Ruth Panelli, Samantha Punch and Elsbeth Robson. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203942222-26

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs