University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Gunilla Priebe

SENIOR LECTURER

School of Public Health and Community
Medicine
Telephone
+46 31-786 68 64
+46 766-18 68 64
Mail
gunilla.priebe@gu.se
Visiting address
Medicinaregatan 18A
41390 Göteborg
Postal address
Global hälsa och folkhälsa, Avdelningen för samhällsmedicin och folkhälsa, Box 463
40530 Göteborg

About Gunilla Priebe

Three concepts summarize my current research profile: health promotion, health literacy and migration. I lead the new project Health Promotive Interventions for Refugees (HIRE), a project that focuses on health promotion for asylum seekers and immigrants in Sweden.

I am also involved in a research project focusing on young women at risk for HIV, Angola, in collaboration with Universidade Católica de Angola, ISP Jean Piaget de Benguela and HEARD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The project is presented here

My teaching, mainly at our international master's program in public health with health equality, is focused on theory of science; social determinants of health; governing health equality and qualitative research methods.

Previous research areas have also touched on theories and methods regarding participatory research and development processes, e.g. theory development regarding concepts of scientific quality, especially in relation to how public health and medical research through community based participation can function as a progressive force on the road towards a more democratic, inclusive and equitable society. In my doctoral thesis I specifically investigated this topic in relation to international malaria research and the results indicated that academic criteria (internal validity) for quality supersede factual generalizability and practical relevance (external validity). Positivist epistemological dogmas of universalism and mechanistic objectivity govern scientific knowledge production in spite of recurrent calls for the appreciation of local needs, variations and specificities. As a result international malaria research has prioritized topics of academic interest, over topics of interest to decision and policy makers, medical staff and the population in malaria endemic areas. In the thesis it is emphasized that reserachers, funding agencies and science policy actors need to reflect over what this means - both for communities in need of high quality and innovative health interventions as well as for the legitimacy of science. For an e-interview at the well-recognized digital network Malaria World see: malariaworld.org/blog/e-interview-dr-gunilla-priebe-should-more-malaria-research-be-based-africa