Lesley Gittings, PhD

Assistant Professor

Room TBA
519 661-2111 xTBA
lgitting@uwo.ca

ORCID:

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Toronto; University of Cape Town)
  • MPhil, PhD (University of Cape Town)
  • BComm (University of Ottawa)

Graduate Program Supervision

  • Health and Rehabilitation Sciences – Health Promotion |

Research In Profile

Professor Lesley Gittings is a community-engaged health equity researcher with an interest in the social and structural factors that shape health across the life course. Her research focuses on: (1) social determinants of HIV and sexual and reproductive health; and (2) participatory and art-based approaches for youth empowerment and well-being. She engages culturally grounded, strengths-based approaches rooted in social justice.

She is currently an investigator on studies in Southern Africa, Eastern Africa and Canada, with youth populations facing social, structural and environmental barriers to health equity. These include: adolescents living with HIV in South Africa, climate change affected adolescents in Kenya, refugee youth in Uganda; Indigenous and Northern young people in the Northwest Territories and youth experiencing homelessness in Toronto.

Professor Gittings is a research associate at the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral research focused on the biosocial lives of adolescent boys and young men with perinatally-acquired HIV. She has worked in the HIV and health sectors in Canada, Southern and Eastern Africa for 15 years.

Featured Publications and Projects

Chapters and Reports

  • Gittings, L., Hodes, R., Colvin, C. and Zungu, M. (2020). Things less spoken: HIV research with adolescent boys and young men – implications for theory, policy and practice. In K. Govender and N.K. Poku (Eds.), Adolescence and HIV Prevention in Africa: Emerging Evidence and Intervention Strategies. Routledge.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Gittings, L., Price, Y., Kelly, J., Medley, S., Kannemeyer, N., Thomas, A., Ralayo, N., Omullo, V., Obbuyi, A., Cluver, L. Logie, C., and Toska, E. (In press). Health and development priorities of South African and Kenyan adolescents prior to, and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Psychology, Health and Medicine.
  • Gittings, L., Medley, S., Logie, C., Ralalyo, N., Toska, E., Peterson, N., Cluver, L., Chen, J., Art-based reflections from 12 years of adolescent health and development-related research in South Africa. (2022). Journal of Health Promotion International. 37(S2): ii83-ii96. DOI: /10.1093/heapro/daac020.
  • Gittings, L., Colvin, C., Hodes, R. (2022). ‘Blood and blood: Anti-retroviral therapy, masculinity and redemption among adolescent boys in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa’. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 36(3): 367-390. DOI:
  • Gittings, L., Toska, E., Medley, M., Cluver, L., Logie, C., Ralayo, N., Chen, J., Mbithi, J. (2021). ‘Now my life is stuck!’: Experiences of adolescents and young people during COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa. Global Public Health. 16(6), 947-963, DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2021.1899262.
  • Gittings, L., Casale, M., Kannemeyer, N., Ralayo, N., Cluver, L., Kelly, J., Logie, C., Toska, E. (2021). ‘Even if I’m well informed, I will never get it’: COVID-19 vaccine beliefs and intentions among HIV-affected adolescents and young people in South Africa. South African Health Review.
  • Gittings, L., and Grimwood, A. (2020). ‘We need other men to stand up and start the journey’: engaging men as HIV community health workers - a gender transformative approach? Journal of Culture, Health and Sexuality. 23(2), 192-206. DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2019.1700306.

Visit for a comprehensive list of publications.

Graduate Student Opportunities

I am working on a number of adolescent health, gender and development-related projects in Canada and Eastern and Southern Africa. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to contact me via email.

Additional Information

Academic Appointments and Research Affiliations

  • Research Associate, Accelerate Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents Research Hub, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Awards

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (University of Toronto).
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents (University of Cape Town).
  • Innovation Doctoral Scholarship, South African National Research Foundation.
  • Max & Lillie Sonnenberg Scholarship for semester study at the University of Oxford, University of Cape Town.
  • Ambassadorial Scholarship, Rotary Foundation.
  • Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary Foundation.

Professional Activities

  • Editorial Board, African Journal of AIDS Research