Florence Dery
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E-mail:
Biography
Florence Dery is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment (UTM) at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada. In March 2023, she obtained her PhD from Queen’s University, Canada. Florence Dery’s research broadly focuses on the environment-health nexus, gender empowerment, development and global health. She works on topics at the intersection of environment, development, and human health and wellbeing. Her doctoral research titled Promoting inclusive growth and wellbeing through women’s participation in the informal water and sanitation (WASH) sector in Ghana and Kenya was partly funded by the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC). Findings from her doctoral dissertation show that the main risks faced by informal water and sanitation workers include injuries, environmental contamination, stigma, and work-life balance. Female informal water and sanitation workers face unique threats that could increase their risk of long-term health and safety effects. Florence Dery has experience in research that focuses on how access to resources (e.g., water, sanitation, and hygiene) influence health and wellbeing in resource-constrained settings. With her engagement in water & sanitation research in sub-Saharan Africa since 2018, she is fully engaged in promoting inclusive governance through research in line with the SDGs. She also seeks to explore the forms of support and intervention essential workers receive and the structural changes they require to improve working conditions across public and private sectors during and after public emergencies. Florence Dery looks forward to a career in research and academia.
Conference Panel/Session Chair:
- Panel moderator- Scholarship Beyond Borders Conference. Kingston, Ontario, March 20, 2021
- Panel member - Queen’s Environmental Justice and Equity Conference. Kingston, Ontario, March 7, 2020
- Panel moderator-Approaching Publishing. Canadian Association of African Studies Conference. Kingston, Ontario, May 3-6, 2018
Conference/Panel Organization
- Queen’s African and Diaspora Conference, 2019
- Approaching publishing. Canadian Association of African Studies Conference. Kingston, Ontario, May 3-6, 2018
Administrative Service
- Member, Food Insecurity Advisory Committee, Queen’s University, Kingston 2020 – 2022
- International students’ representative, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies Graduate students’ council, Queen’s University, Kingston 2021-2022
- Member, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Working Group - School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston - 2020
Research Grants/Funding
- 2020: IDRC Doctoral Research Award: 20000
Publications
Articles (Scholarly Journals, Peer Reviewed)
- Azupogo, W.U., Achore, M., Dery, F., & Bisung E. (2023). Health implications of coping with water insecurity at the household level. Water Security, 19, 100135
- Dery, F., Bisung, E., Abudho, B., Soliku, O., & Dery, G. (2023). Examining the health and wellbeing of women sanitation workers in Ghana and Kenya. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 5, 100167.
- Dery, F., & Bisung, E. (2022). Exploring informalities, inequalities, and health risk in the informal water sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Water Security, 17, 100128.
- Dery, F., Bisung, E., Dickin, S., & Atengdem, J. (2021). ‘They will listen to women who speak but it ends there’: examining empowerment in the context of water and sanitation interventions in Ghana. H2Open Journal, 4(1), 231-243.
- Dery, F., Bisung, E., Dickin, S., & Dyer, M. (2020). Understanding empowerment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH): a scoping review. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 10(1), 5-15.
- Dery, F. A., Kuusaana, E. D., & Owusu-Sekyere, E. (2018). Solid Waste Characterization and Recycling Potential for University Campuses in Ghana: Case Study of Two Ghanaian Universities. J Waste Recycl, 3(1), 3.
- Dery, F., Achore, M., & Bisung, E. (2021). “Today men’s orientation has changed” Gender and household water and sanitation responsibilities in Ghana. Geography, Health and Sustainability: Gender Matters Globally.