Dr Aravinda Guntupalli

Biography

My academic journey started in Hyderabad, India with a BSc in Genetics, Chemistry and Zoology. Due to my interest in health inequalities, I changed my track to a Masters in Anthropology (Hyderabad Central University) to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of socio-economic and demographic factors on health inequalities including access to care. To improve my skills further in quantitative methods, I have done another Masters in Demography at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. While carrying out a PhD in Demography on the health status of the slum-dwelling migrant population in Hyderabad in Demography, I was offered a research and teaching position at the University of Tuebingen at the Department of Economics, which resulted in my PhD thesis on Anthropometric Evidence of Indian Welfare and Inequality in the 20th Century. My postdoctoral journey took me to the University of Southampton in 2007 where I worked as a research fellow in the Social Policy Department and at the MRC Life Course Epidemiology Unit followed by a Lectureship in Social Sciences. In 2015, I moved to the Open University as a Senior Lecturer in Public Health where I was also the Academic Lead for the Race Equality Charter. In December 2019, I have joined the IAHS, University of Aberdeen, as Senior Lecturer in Global Health. My research takes me to various countries including India, UK, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Prizes and Awards

2012 Southampton University Vice-Chancellors team award in recognition to the outstanding contribution as a team 

2003 Social Science History Association Rockefeller Graduate Student Award for the best proposal 

2002 Chandrasekharan Award from the Indian Association for the Study of Population

Research Overview

My research focuses on health inequalities by protected characteristics mostly age, gender, sexuality and socio-economic status including non-monetary indicators of poverty. My methodology tends to be mostly quantitative with or without a historical perspective. My settings tend to be the UK or LMICs in poorer settings. Given my interdisciplinary training with a BSc in Genetics, Zoology and Chemistry, Masters in both Anthropology and Demography and a PhD in Economics, my research looks at inequalities using an interdisciplinary lens.

Current Research

• Impact of COVID on nutrition and food security of informal migrant workers in India
• Non-communicable diseases among older people in India
• COVID impact on older people in India

Teaching Responsibilities

Programme coordinator of MSc Global Health and Management Global Health and Management | Postgraduate Taught Subjects | Study Here | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk)

Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Institute of Applied Health Sciences