Michelle Munyikwa, MD, PhD
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Associate Scholar
- Resident Physician, Internal Medicine-Pediatrics | University of Pennsylvania
- Ghana
- Health Equity | Infectious disease | Mental health | Refugee health
Languages: English (Native), French (advanced), Spanish (conversational)
Bio statement
Michelle Munyikwa is a current resident in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics in the global health track. She earned her PhD in cultural and medical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 through the MSTP program. After graduating in 2021 with her MD, she continued on to Med-Peds residency, where she focuses on domestic and global health equity. In addition to existing work on social science in medical education, migrant health, and the use of race in medicine, she has an evolving research program on the lived experience of adolescents and young adults living with HIV/AIDS.
Recent global health projects
My doctoral dissertation work and subsequent advocacy has focused on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Philadelphia (and the United States more broadly). I've worked with many organizations on advocacy for individual asylum seekers, as well as building the capacity in the American healthcare system for providers who are trained to do asylum evaluations.
Selected publications
Zeidan, A.J., Khatri, U.G., Munyikwa, M., Barden, A. and Samuels-Kalow, M., 2019. Barriers to accessing acute care for newly arrived refugees. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(6) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6860387/)
Munyikwa, M., 2020. (De) Racializing refugee medicine. Science, technology, & human values, 45(5), pp.829-847. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0162243920905014?)
Munyikwa, M., 2021. What Could Be, But Never Has Been: Horizons of Human Rights and Racial Justice. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 8(1), pp.1-11. (http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/5256)
Munyikwa, M., Hammond, C.K., Langmaid, L. and Ratner, L., 2023. Growing Up Can Be Hard to Do: Reimagining 1 Structurally Supportive Pediatric-to-Adult Transitions of Care from a Rights-Based Perspective. Health and Human Rights, 25(1), p.51. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9973513/)
Munyikwa, M., 2021. Locating Refuge: Racialized Displacement and the Spatial Politics of Belonging. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, 12(3), pp.312-323. (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/845685)
Last Updated: 03 July 2024