Discipline of Psychiatry and Behavioural Medicine

Biography
Thirusha trained as a clinical psychologist in apartheid era South Africa and practiced in the public in South Africa until 2024. Her clinical work in South Africa focused on clinical and health psychology for infectious disease, severe mental disorders and the mental health of healthcare workers. Thirusha’s current research focus areas include the global politics and dynamics of knowledge production in Health Professions and Health Sciences Education and Global Health especially with regards to mental health and infectious disease. She explores on issues of social accountability, antiracism, social justice, and gender in global health contexts. Inspired to give voice and make space for women of colour in research and health, Thirusha applies decolonising and diffracting methodologies in research e.g. research poetry as a method for deep reflexivity. Her research references critical and theoretical through decolonial and feminist theories. Thirusha is Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow to the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, UK and Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She is an associate editor on PLOS Global Public Health, and EDI editor on Teaching and Learning in Medicine. Her writing appears in Academic Medicine, The Lancet, The BMJ and Advances in Health Sciences Education. She was a Karolinska Institutet Prize in Medical Education Fellow in 2019 and is a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow. Thirusha is Canada Research Chair in Equity and Social Justice in Global Medical Education.