In today's episode, we interview Dr. Nosipho Makhakhe from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She holds a PhD in humanities, more specifically in health promotion. We were eager to learn more about her use of qualitative methods and her research in particular.

You will learn in this episode more about Nosipho's research with sex workers, her recommendations for qualitative work in vulnerable communities, and the surprising findings of her research that came from truly listening to the sex workers and their stories. We also learned more about what it is like to do a PhD in South Africa, and their written form of the PhD defense. Finally, we also discuss how to set boundaries to work and protecting our mental health, get to learn about how COVID-19 impacted Nosipho's life and research, her best advice for PhD students, and what a day in the life looks like.

References

• Dr. Nosipho Makhakhe's publications
• Situation analysis 
• Situation analysis in qualitative methods
• Focus groups
• How to use focus groups to evaluate your digital health product
• Interviews in qualitative research
• Co-creation in dialogue groups
• National research foundation (South Africa)