Elizabeth Kath is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT University. Her academic work has been interdisciplinary, spanning the fields of political science, public health and development. This includes a major study of the social and political dimensions of Cuba's public health system, specifically its Maternal-Infant Health Program, for which she spent nine months conducting field research in Havana. The findings of this research on Cuba were published as a book - Social Relations and the Cuban Health Miracle - in 2010.
Her work has also been published in numerous academic journals, presented at international conferences and has won several awards. She co-authored the health components of the Global Cities Institute's ‘Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development' project, which identifies alternative, community-engaged pathways to development in Papua New Guinea and formed part of a major report and a book. She is an Honorary Research Fellow with the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, for which is particularly interested on the programme’s engagement in Latin America and has been involved with its social inclusion project in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Her current research interests include social inclusion and reconciliaton, Latin American and Caribbean society, politics and culture (esp. Cuba and Brazil), and public heath (esp. maternal-infant health). Most recently, she is embarking on a research project that considers the concepts of social inclusion and reconciliation in relation to health service delivery in disadvantaged communities. She is a co-director of and has played a key role in establishing 'Global Reconciliation' - an organization with partners from over 35 countries, which seeks to promote human security through community engagement and local-global collaboration.
RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellowship (2011)
Jorge Perez-Lopez Graduate Student Award (1st Prize) ASCE, Miami (2006)
Australian Federation of University Women ‘2006 Daphne Elliott Bursary’
Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship (2003)