Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa
Ph.D. in Public Health
Muhimbili University of Health & Allied Science,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Email: mwijagealexander2014@yahoo.com
I am a social anthropologist interested in men's health and masculinity, key vulnerable and marginalized populations' sexual and reproductive health, access to healthcare services, mixed research methods, and health systems and policy.
I completed my PhD in 2023 in Public Health at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science (Tanzania) in collaboration with the University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Copenhagen (Denmark). Currently, I am postdoctoral scholar working with the National Institute for Medical Research in Mwanza and the Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab at University of California, Santa Barbara (USA). Together we are researching influences on young men's gender ideology, drawing on theoretical frameworks of social learning.
Research Focus
My goal is to generate scholarship supporting the holistic well-being of key, vulnerable, and marginalized populations who are at risk of HIV and sexual-related infection and yet experiencing hardships in accessing healthcare services due to stigma, discrimination, criminalization, and marginalization. These are populations reported to carry a disproportionate burden of HIV and contribute about 30 percent of new infections annually. I am interested in exploring opportunities and challenges faced by these populations in accessing healthcare, what can be learned from these challenges, considering what and how friendly services could be organized, what interventions are likely to work better to reduce risks for HIV infection among these populations and that would improve their access to healthcare services. Their safety is our safety and their happiness is ours too.
Publications
- Mwakilasa MT, Ishungisa AM, Sunguya B, Balandya E, Likindikoki SL,Lyamuya E. “They are not HIV treatment drugs; they are preventive drugs (PrEP)”. A qualitative exploration of experienced barriers and facilitators for accessing PrEP among vulnerable adolescent girls and young women. Public health and Health systems. (Under review).
- Mwakilasa MT, Temba P, Sabas D, Ishungisa AM, BalandyaE. Vulnerable adolescent girls and young women’s recommendations for improving PrEP access in Tanzania. A qualitative inquiry. Public health
and Health systems. (Forthcoming). - Ishungisa AM, Kilgallen J, Mabula E, Brand CO, Urassa M, LawsonDW. What do other men think? Understanding (mis)perceptions of peer gender role ideology among young Tanzanian men. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2024 July.
- Kilgallen J, Ishungisa AM, Brand CO, Urassa M, Lawson DW. “A snake with no teeth”: urbanization shifts perceptions of men who support women’s empowerment in Northwestern Tanzania. Social
Development. (Under review). - Ishungisa AM, Kilgallen J, Mabula E, Brand CO, Urassa M, Lawson DW. "Dead bodies walking: Tanzanian men's narratives of why they resist women's empowerment and their recommendations towards a better way
forward. Human Evolutionary Science. (Under review). - Brand CO, Ishungisa AM, Kilgallen J, Urassa M, Lawson DW. The social learning of gender roles: men report lower support for women’s empowerment when in front of their peers. Cultural Anthropology. (Under review).
- Ishungisa AM, Kilgallen J, Mabula E, Brand CO, Urassa M, LawsonDW. What role does prestige play in the social learning of gender role ideology? A qualitative study of young Tanzanian men. Evolutionary Human
Sciences. (Under review). - Kilgalen, Ishungisa AM, Urassa M, Lawson D. “You are married by the woman”: Divergent understandings of men’s support for women’s empowerment in Northwestern Tanzania". Men and Masculinities. (Under review).
- Lawson DW,Chen Z, Kilgallen JA, Brand CO, Ishungisa AM, Schaffnit SB, Kumogola Y, Urassa
M. Misperception of peer beliefs reinforces inequitable gender norms among Tanzanian men. Evol HumSci. 2024;6:e17. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2024.6. eCollection 2024. PubMed PMID: 38572225; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10988154. - Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa, Elia John Mmbaga, Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari, Britt Pinkowski Tersbøl & Kåre Moen (2023). “Five different ways of reasoning: Tanzanian healthcare workers’ ideas about how to improve HIV prevention among same-sex attracted men” BMC Health Services Research 23: 807.
- Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa, Dan Wolf Meyrowitsch, Elia John Mmbaga, Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari, Kåre Moen (2022): "Not a Problem at All or Excluded by Oneself, Doctors, and the Law? Healthcare Workers’ Perspectives on Access to HIV-Related Healthcare among Same-Sex Attracted Men in Tanzania". Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care Volume 21: 1-8
- Likindikoki, Samuel L., Dan W. Meyrowitsch, Mucho M. Mizinduko, Alexander M. Ishungisa, Britt P. Tersbøl, Germana H. Leyna, Kåre Moen et al (2021). "Socio-cognitive factors influencing access to HIV prevention services among people who inject drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: An integrated bio-behavioural survey." Plos one 17(1): e0261500.
- Samuel Lazarus Likindikoki, Elia J. Mmbaga, Mucho Mizinduko, Mwijage Alexander, Lisa V. Adams, Robert Horsburgh, Jr., Kåre Moen, Germana Leyna, Theis Lange, Britt P. Tersbøl, Melkizedeck Leshabari, and Dan W. Meyrowitsch (2022) "Testing for Drug-Related Infectious Diseases and Determinants among People Who Use Drugs in a Low-Resource Setting: A Respondent-Driven Cross-Sectional Survey." Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 7(9), 213.
- Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa, Mucho Mizinduko, Samuel Likindikoki, Elia John Mmbagaa, Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari, Kåre Moen (2021) "Health services we can trust: How same-sex attracted men in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania would like their HIV healthcare to be organized" Culture, Health & Sexuality 23(10): 1329-1343.
- Moen, Kåre, Elia John Mmbaga, Alexander Mwijage Ishungisa, and Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari. (2021) "Hardship, public health, heshima, lube and problem trees: Forces shaping grassroots organizing against HIV among same-sex attracted men in Dar es Salaam." In Male Same-sex Sexuality and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 93-115. Springer, Cham.
- Mizinduko, Mucho, Kåre Moen, Britt Pinkowski Tersbøl, Samuel L. Likindikoki, Mwijage Alexander Ishungisa, Germana H. Leyna, Neema Makyao et al. "HIV testing and associated factors among female sex workers in Tanzania: approaching the first 90% target?." AIDS care (2021): 1-9.
- Ishungisa, Mwijage Alexander, Kare Moen, Germana Leyna, Neema Makyao, Angela Ramadhan, Theis Lange, Dan Wolf Meyrowitsch et al. "HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men following the implementation of the HIV preventive guideline in Tanzania: respondent-driven sampling survey." BMJ open 10, no. 10 (2020): e036460.
- Likindikoki, Samuel Lazarus, Elia John Mmbaga, Germana Henry Leyna, Kåre Moen, Neema Makyao, Mucho Mizinduko, Alex Ishungisa Mwijage, Diana Faini, Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari, and Dan Wolf Meyrowitsch. "Prevalence and risk factors associated with HIV-1 infection among people who inject drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: a sign of successful intervention?." Harm Reduction Journal 17, no. 1 (2020): 1-10.
- Leyna, Germana Henry, Neema Makyao, Alexander Mwijage, Angela Ramadhan, Samuel Likindikoki, Mucho Mizinduko, Melkizedeck Thomas Leshabari, Kåre Moen, and Elia John Mmbaga (2019). "HIV/HCV co-infection and associated risk factors among injecting drug users in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: potential for HCV elimination." Harm Reduction Journal 16 (1) 1-10.
- Lawson DW,Chen Z, Kilgallen JA, Brand CO, Ishungisa AM, Schaffnit SB, Kumogola Y, Urassa
M. Misperception of peer beliefs reinforces inequitable gender norms among Tanzanian men. Evol HumSci. 2024;6:e17. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2024.6. eCollection 2024. PubMed PMID: 38572225; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10988154.
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