Policy Bites – Tackling the problem of distance in global social policy and research

The Sydney Policy Lab invites you to our second Policy Bites seminar of the semester: Associate Professor Seye Abimbola in conversation with Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, Director of the Sydney Policy Lab.

Light lunch will be provided. Space is limited. Please register to secure your place.

Policy Bites – Tackling the problem of distance in global social policy and research

In his 2024 book The Foreign Gaze: Essays on Global Health, Seye Abimbola placed distance, whether physical or social, at the heart of what ails efforts to use policy and research to address long-standing challenges of inequity in health globally. That is, the physical or social distance between, on the one hand, the people who make policy or produce evidence; and on the other hand, the people on whose behalf or for whose supposed benefit policy is made or evidence is produced. Or the distance between the location where or the social position from which knowledge is produced, and the location or social position of the audience of that knowledge. That is, the audience, typically powerful and physically or socially foreign, whose needs and preferences shape the knowledge that is produced and to what end.

Although the essays in the book were written with a focus on health equity and the field of global public health, they have resonances with the social sciences more broadly and implications for social policy, whether domestic or international. In this Policy Bites seminar, Seye Abimbola will explore these resonances and implications in conversation with Dr Kate Harrison Brennan.

About Associate Professor Seye Abimbola

Seye Abimbola teaches in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. His writing and research focus on epistemic practices in health systems and global health. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal BMJ Global Health (2015-24), and has recently been Prince Claus Chair in Equity and Development at Utrecht University (2020-22), Radulovacki Visiting Scholar in Global Health Studies at Northwestern University (2023-24), and Thinker in Residence at the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research based at the World Health Organisation headquarters in Geneva (2024-25). His book, an essay collection titled "The Foreign Gaze" was published in 2024.

Time and location

1:00 pm, Tuesday 23 September 2025.

Seminar Room 203, RD Watt Building (A04), Science Road, The University of Sydney, NSW 2050.

See more information about getting to the Lab.

Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring our spaces are safe, accessible and enjoyable for all. The RD Watt building is fully accessible for people who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids and service animals are welcome. Enter via the rear door of the RD Watt Building, near the entrance to the Social Sciences Building at the University of Sydney. Our meeting and events space is equipped with PA and assistive listening systems.

If you have any other access requirements, please do let us know when you register.

About Policy Bites

The Sydney Policy Lab’s lunchtime seminars – Policy Bites – are a forum for researchers and practitioners to present their exploratory and applied policy work in its early stages. Each public seminar gathers the Lab community in our collaborative space to hear and discuss new research as we exchange ideas across disciplines.

Policy Bites are organised by Dr Kate Harrison Brennan (Director, Sydney Policy Lab), Dr Assel Mussagulova (Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Administration, School of Social and Political Sciences) and Associate Professor Meru Sheel (Sydney School of Public Health).