Halina Suwalowska
Researcher in Global Health Bioethics
Halina is a Researcher in Global Health Bioethics at the Ethox Centre, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities (WEH) at the University of Oxford.
She is working with the Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics Collaborative (GLIDE) and Epidemic Ethics (EE) network led by the World Health Organisation.
Her particular focus is on the ethical and social issues emerging in managing dead bodies during natural disasters and epidemics and the challenges experienced by frontline staff and ‘last responders’ when caring for the dead.
Before becoming GLIDE/EE fellow Halina was a postdoctoral researcher with Research capacity strengthening and knowledge generation to support preparedness and response to humanitarian crises and epidemics (RECAP), a partnership between universities in the United Kingdom, Sierra Leone and Lebanon, and some of the leading humanitarian NGOs
Halina is a sociologist. She completed a DPhil in Population Health at the Ethox Centre in 2020. Her doctoral research focused on the ethics and politics of implementing Minimally Invasive Autopsy (MIA) in low-income settings. The findings of her study inspired an art exhibition, ‘Beyond the body: a portrait of autopsy’ that has been shown in the UK and internationally.
Before joining the Ethox Centre, Halina worked at the Wellcome Trust in London. In 2015 Halina went on a 12-month secondment to the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam and Nepal.
Halina is a member of the Global Health Bioethics Network.
Recent publications
Perceptions of death, dying and the body in Vietnamese culture: A qualitative exploration from a study examining the potentials of minimally invasive tissue sampling in Vietnam
Journal article
Doan NP. et al, (2026), SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 9, 100714 - 100714
Life from death: ethical implications of uterus transplantation from deceased donors in global health
Journal article
Suwalowska H. et al, (2025), BMJ Global Health, 10, e018216 - e018216
Ethical considerations in the routine identification of human remains in forensic mortuaries
Journal article
Reid KM. et al, (2025), Wellcome Open Research, 10, 171 - 171
Global health photography behind the façade of empowerment and decolonisation
Journal article
Alenichev A. et al, (2024), Global Public Health, 19
Hypothetical acceptability of minimally invasive tissue sampling and considerations for practice: A qualitative study in Vietnam
Journal article
Phuong ND. et al, (2024), Global Public Health, 19