Dr Sharli Paphitis

Dr Sharli Paphitis is a domestic abuse survivor and the co-director of the Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network at King’s College London (KCL). She is currently a Senior Research Fellow in Qualitative Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at KCL.

After completing her PhD in the philosophy of action (with a focus on human agency and vulnerability), she became interested in interdisciplinary research and teaching. Sharli is passionate about doing high-impact participatory research to address real world problems in partnership with local communities. At Rhodes University and KCL, she has led community-based participatory research programmes to improve structural conditions, interpersonal relationships, and mental health outcomes for survivors of gender-based violence, xenophobic violence, and human trafficking. She recently edited a book on the important role community-based research can play in higher education for the public good. 

She has lectured across 3 continents in disciplines including Philosophy, Psychology, Community Development, Advanced Research Methods, and Water Research. She also has a keen interest in research ethics, and served as the chairperson of the Rhodes University ethics review board for several years.

Sharli is also a Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome sufferer and is passionate about research and advocacy about this debilitating and poorly understood disease. When Sharli is not working on scholarly pursuits, she enjoys hiking, making stained glass windows, and painting.