New doctoral representatives at the Department of Global Public Health

Soha el Halabi and Katrine de Angeles 

Soha el Halabi registered for her PhD in July 2021. Her work focuses on companionship during childbirth. Katrine de Angeles registered for her PhD in December 2016 and has been on maternity leave with two children during her studies. Her work focuses on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Together they have been elected, via the Doctoral Student Association at KI, to serve a one-year term as doctoral student representatives at GPH.

Doctoral student representatives serve as the voice, and the ears, of doctoral students at the department board meetings and other forums. They are also here to support other doctoral students who might have issues, concerns, or questions, and help address them or take them further.

Focus on rights and deliverables, compile information & the social side

This year Soha and Katrine want to focus particularly on the rights and deliverables for different types of doctoral students, those based at KI, those abroad, and hybrid doctoral students. They especially want to assist fellow students in information finding and sharing and help doctoral students from abroad navigate the recent change in Swedish migrant legislation. As part of this work, Soha and Katrine intend to compile all useful information into one easily accessible document and webpage to help all doctoral students at GPH.

Equally important is the social side, and mutual support and collaboration. “Our circle is growing, it keeps on growing, which is really nice, and this is the time and place to make those connections, meet other people, continue to learn from each other and have fun”, as Soha puts it. They will work to make sure that those students who are not based in Sweden, or at KI, will also feel socially included. Since the pandemic put a halt to social gatherings and activities, Soha and Katrine are planning to do a survey among the doctoral students to assess how people would prefer to socialise and gather more informally.

How to get in touch with the representatives 

The doctoral student representatives will also present at two department seminars this semester. On the 17^th of March they will introduce their work and the results of the survey on social activities, and on the 28^th of April central ombudsmen from the Doctoral Students Association at KI have been invited to discuss issues of discrimination and harassment. If you are a doctoral student at the Department for Global Public Health and would like to get in touch with your representatives, you find their contact details, including email addresses here: https://ki.se/en/gph/doctoral-student-representatives-at-the-department-of-global-public-health.There is also a Whatsapp group you can be added to if you email Soha or Katrine.

Support with hybrid thesis defences

The administration will offer technical support with Zoom Webinar during hybrid defences. Emma Thorell or Véronique Henriksson will send the PhD student and main supervisor information about the Zoom set up, in good time before the defence. For more information on the hybrid set up, please see https://staff.ki.se/hybrid-thesis-defences