My work lies at the intersection of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Public Health. I specialize in communication for social and behavioral change as it relates to HIV, COVID-19, diabetes, hypertension and other health conditions. My recent research has focused on conducting methodologically innovative qualitative research and applying findings from this research in intervention development, with particular focus on digital games for health, and in the enhancement of existing evidence-based interventions. I am particularly interested in programs that seek to operate at multiple, mutually reinforcing levels of analysis. This interest draws on my global programmatic experience, which is a source both of inspiration and of data for my current research. In 1996, I was one of the initiators of the Global Dialogues communication process, led by Daniel Enger (www.globaldialogues.org; known as “Scenarios from Africa” until it scaled up globally in 2012). A participatory process anchored at the community level, this involves the production of short fiction films by leading directors based on winning ideas submitted by young people to scriptwriting competitions. Over forty short fiction films are currently available (www.youtube.com/globaldialogues). The films are donated to television stations and are widely broadcast. Available in 30 languages, they are also used extensively as educational resources at community level. They have been viewed over 100 million times on YouTube alone. To date, the Global Dialogues process has generated an archive of over 100,000 narratives on HIV written by a quarter of a million young Africans over a critical 18-year period in the epidemic. With my research team, I analyze these narratives to better understand factors influencing both cross-national differences in young Africans’ social representations of HIV/AIDS and changes in these representations over time. We apply these research findings in the cultural adaptation of evidence-based prevention interventions and in the development of innovative HIV communication programming, including a smartphone game to prevent HIV among African adolescents, which we are currently evaluating in an efficacy trial with our colleagues at the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
My interest in narrative-based, contextualized approaches applies not only to health education, but also to classroom teaching, where I emphasize interactive, case-based, problem-solving approaches. I was delighted to be voted Professor of the Year by the RSPH Student Government Association in 2009 and to receive an Early Career Teaching Award from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health in 2016.
Contact Information
Rollins School of Public Health , 1518 Clifton Road NE, CNR 6005
Atlanta , GA 30322
1518 Clifton Road NE, CNR 6005
Phone: (404) 727-5286
Email: swinske@emory.edu
Areas of Interest
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Community Based Research
- Diabetes
- Global Health
- Health Communication
- HIV/AIDS Prevention
- Sexual Health/Behavior
Education
- PhD , University of London
- MA , University of London
- BA (Hons) , University of Oxford
Courses Taught
- GH 514: Social/Behavior Change Commun.
Affiliations & Activities
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Inquiry
Publications
- K. Winskell, G. Sabben, V. Akelo, K. Ondeng’e, I. Odero, V. Mudhune, 2020, A smartphone game to prevent HIV among young Kenyans: local perceptions of mechanisms of effect, Health Education Research, 35, 153-164
- 2. Kate Winskell, Gaëlle Sabben, Robyn Singleton, Robert A. Bednarczyk, Georges Tiendrébéogo, Siphiwe Nkambule-Vilakati, Fatim Louise Dia, Benjamin Mbakwem, Rob Stephenson, 2020, Temporal and cross-national comparisons of young Africans’ HIV-related narratives from five countries, 1997–2014., Social Science and Medicine – Population Health, 11,
- Sabben G, Mudhune V, Ondeng'e K, Odero I, Ndivo R, Akelo V, Winskell K, 2019, A Smartphone Game to Prevent HIV among Young Africans (Tumaini): Assessing Intervention and Study Acceptability among Adolescents and their Parents, JMIR Mhealth Uhealth, ,
- Gaëlle Sabben, Victor Mudhune, Victor Akelo, Ken Ondeng'e, Richard Ndivo, Rob Stephenson, Kate Winskell., 2019, A smartphone game to prevent HIV among young Africans: Protocol for a randomized pilot study of a mobile intervention, JMIR Protocols, 8,
- Winskell K, Sabben G, Obong’o C, 2019, Interactive Narrative in a Mobile Health Behavioral Intervention (Tumaini): Theoretical Grounding and Structure of a Smartphone Game to Prevent HIV among Young Africans, JMIR Serious Games, ,
- Kate Winskell, Gaëlle Sabben, Ken Ondeng’e, Isdorah Odero, Victor Akelo, Victor Mudhune, 2018, A Smartphone Game to Prevent HIV among Young Kenyans: Household Dynamics , Health Education Journal, ,
- Kate Winskell, Gaëlle Sabben, Victor Akelo, Ken Ondeng’e, Christopher Obong’o, Rob Stephenson, David Warhol, Victor Mudhune, 2018, A Smartphone Game-Based Intervention (Tumaini) to Prevent HIV Among Young Africans: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6,
- Winskell K., Kus L., Sabben G., Tiendrébéogo G, Mbakwem B, Singleton R, 2018, Social Representations of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and its Prevention in Narratives by Young Africans from Five Countries, 1997- 2014: Implications for Communication, Social Science & Medicine, ,
- Singleton, R., Winskell, K., Gregg, A, McLeod, H, Sabben, G., Obong’o, C., Dia, F, 2018, Young Africans’ social representations of sexual abuse of power in their HIV-related creative narratives, 2005-2014: Cultural scripts and applied possibilities, Culture, Health and Sexuality, ,
- Singleton, R., Winskell, K., Nkambule-Vilakati, S., Sabben, G, 2018, Young Africans’ Social Representations of Sexual Violence in their HIV-Related Creative Narratives, 2005-2014: Rape Myths and Alternative Counter-Narratives, Social Science and Medicine , ,
- Kate Winskell and Gaëlle Sabben, 2016, Sexual Stigma and Symbolic Violence Experienced, Enacted, and Counteracted in Young Africans’ Writing about Same-Sex Attraction, Social Science & Medicine, ,
- Kate Winskell, Kathleen Holmes, Elizabeth Neri, *Rachel Berkowitz, Benjamin Mbakwem, Oby Obyerodhyambo, 2015, Making sense of HIV stigma: representations in young Africans’ HIV-related narratives and their implications for research methodologies and stigma mitigation efforts, Global Public Health, 10, 917-929
- Anna Newton-Levinson, Kate Winskell, Berissa Abdela, Marcie Rubardt, and Rob Stephenson, 2014, 'People Insult Her as a Sexy Woman': Sexuality, Stigma and Vulnerability among Widowed and Divorced Women in Oromiya, Ethiopia, Culture, Health and Sexuality, 16, 916-930
- Winskell K, Evans D, Stephenson R, Del Rio C, Curran JW, 2014, Incorporating Global Health Competencies into the Public Health Curriculum, Public Health Reports, in press,
- Winskell, K, Peter J. Brown, Amy Patterson, Camilla Burkot, Benjamin Mbakwem, 2013, Making sense of HIV in Southeast Nigeria: Fictional narratives, cultural meanings, and methodologies in Medical Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 27:2, 193-214
- Beres L, Winskell K, 2013, Making sense of HIV testing: Social representations in young Africans' narratives, Culture, Health & Sexuality , in press,
- Hagaman A, Wagenaar B, McLean K, Fullard B, Winskell K, Kohrt B, 2013, Suicide in Rural Haiti: Clinical and Community Perceptions of Prevalence, Etiology, and Prevention, Social Science & Medicine, 83, 61-69
- Holmes K, Winskell K, 2013, Understanding and mitigating HIV-related resource-based stigma in the era of antiretroviral therapy, AIDS Care, ,
- Zongrone, A., Winskell, K., Menon, P., 2012, Infant and young child feeding practices and child undernutrition in Bangladesh: Insights from nationally representative data, Public Health Nutrition, in press,
- Winskell, K., Hill E., Obyerodhyambo O., 2011, Comparing HIV-related symbolic stigma in six African countries: Social representations in young people's narratives, Social Science & Medicine, 73, 1257-1265
- Winskell K, Beres LK, Hill E, Obyerodhyambo O, Mbakwem B, 2011, Making sense of abstinence: Social representations in young people’s HIV-related narratives from six African countries, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 13 (8), 945-959
- Winskell K, Obyerodhyambo O, Stephenson R. , 2011, Making sense of condoms: Social representations in young people’s HIV-related narratives from six African countries, Social Science & Medicine , 72, 953-961
- Holmes K, Winskell K, Hennink M, Chidiac S., 2011, Microfinance and HIV Mitigation Among People Living with HIV in the Era of Anti-Retroviral Therapy: Emerging Lessons from Côte d’Ivoire, Global Public Health, 6;4, 447-461
- Winskell K, Enger D, 2009, 'A new way of perceiving the pandemic': the findings from a participatory research process on young Africans' stories about HIV/AIDS, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 11;4, 453-467
- Winskell, K. and Enger, D., 2005, Young Voices Travel Far: A Case Study of Scenarios from Africa, Media and Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development (Hemer & Tufte eds), ,
- Kate Winskell, Robyn Singleton, Gaëlle Sabben, Georges Tiendrébéogo, Chris Obong’o, Fatim Louise Dia, Siphiwe Nkambule-Vilakati, Benjamin Mbakwem, Rob Stephenson, 2000, Social representations of the prevention of heterosexual transmission of HIV among young Africans from five countries, 1997-2014., PLOS One, ,