Climate Conversation: The Intersection of Climate Migration and Health
May 15, 2025, 10:20 am to 11:35 am
The Climate Solutions Research Collective and the Faculty of Applied Science are collaborating to present at UBC Health's Bridging Research and Action Conference. Register for this conversation as a part of the broader conference.
Join researchers Jemima Nomunume Baada and Shahin Kassam of UBC's Centre for Migration Studies for this important conversation.
Climate migration is the movement of people due to environmental changes caused by climate change and may be a result of sudden disasters such as flood or fire, or of gradual changes such as sea level rise. The health implications of climate-caused migration events include physical and mental health of migrants, mental health of practitioners, shifting access to care across regions, and many others. Our two Climate Conversation hosts will each share insights from their own research practice in health, migration, and climate (approximately 10 minutes each). Following this, participants are welcomed to 'join the conversation' by asking questions or through sharing their own research and practice experience.
Speakers
| Shahin Kassam, PhD, RN | School of Nursing Dr. Kassam received her PhD and Master of Nursing from the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria. Dr. Kassam is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, Capacity Centre for Research in Community Engagement and Gender Equity. Her focus of research is on the impact of forced migration on women's health. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, she applies intersectionality-framed community-based methods to her research and engages with non-profit settlement organizations and the women they serve who live within varying contexts of forced migration and exposure to gender-based violence and structural racism. Her research aims to build new and existing partnerships with public and non-profit organizations toward advancing equitable access to health and social services among women affected by forced migration. She is a member of the UBC Centre for Migration Studies. Outside of her roles at post-secondary institutions, Dr. Kassam also serves as a technical advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a Canadian Association for Global Health Board Director. |
| Jemima Nomunume Baada, PhD | Department of Geography Dr. Baada is an interdisciplinary climate-migration scholar, whose research and teaching are at the intersections of gender, climate change, migration, health and development equity. Her teaching focuses on how gendered structures, geopolitical and sociocultural relations, climate change and ongoing development practices affect the lives of migrants, non-migrants and return-migrants in diverse rural and urban contexts, and how to create inclusive opportunities for these groups. Similarly, her research uses a gendered lens to examine how those in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are affected by climate change, domestic and foreign investment, health inequalities and rural migration. She is particularly interested in the experiences of rural dwellers, women, and those whose livelihoods depend on environmental/natural resources (e.g., farmers). She is also interested in understanding how factors such as gender, climate-vulnerability and migration status may act as social determinants of health.
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The Climate Solutions Research Collective is a pan university initiative that brings together researchers, initiatives and groups addressing climate solutions from multiple lenses. In our Climate Conversation Series, we bring together faculty from different disciplines to discuss a climate topic from multiple perspectives. In this session, we are partnering with the Faculty of Applied Science to bring together researchers from Nursing and Geography to discuss the intersections of climate migration and health.