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Dr Mei Trueba

Dr Mei Trueba (BA, BSc, MA, MSc, PhD)

Associate Professor in International Development and Global Health
E: M.Trueba@bsms.ac.uk
Location: Medical Teaching Building, Room 311, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PX

Areas of expertise: Political economies of health and ill-health, Modern slavery and labour harms in healthcare supply chains, Diseases and injuries of poverty and marginalisation (including Skin NTDs), Business practices and workers’ health, Qualitative, ethnographic and inclusive research approaches

Research areas: Business practices, working conditions and occupational health in global supply chains, Sustainable Healthcare and the work–health nexus, Forced labour and ethical public procurement, Social and structural determinants of health, Risk perceptions and everyday health risk management in uncertain contexts, Grounded and expert-by-experience approaches in global health research, policy and practice

Other relevant positions (selected):

Deputy Director of Doctoral Studies (Academic Lead)
Elected University of Sussex Senate Member (2023-2026, re-elected for 2026-2029)
Founder and co-director of the BSMS Qualitative Health Research Group

Other websites: tacklingmodernslavery.com

Biography

Mei Trueba is Associate Professor in International Development and Global Health. Her work is situated at the intersection of global health, development studies and anthropology, with a particular focus on the relationships between international development, work and health.

Her work is predominantly concerned with the political economies of precarious work and of health and ill-health, and she uses grounded research to inform labour, health and social policy and practice. She has led and collaborated on a range of applied research projects aimed at improving the quality of life of traditionally marginalised groups, including Qʼeqchiʼ Indigenous communities in northern Guatemala, Bolivian artisanal and small-scale cooperative miners, street children in Chile, subsistence farmers in the Amhara Region of northern Ethiopia, and migrant workers subjected to forced labour and labour abuses in Malaysia and Spain.

She is also an independent consultant and scientific advisor to a range of international governmental and non-governmental organisations, an active member of the WHO working group on Skin NTDs, and Research Lead for the International Working Group on Ethical Public Procurement (IWGEPP).

Research

Her research has been financed by organisations including the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), the Institute of Medical Ethics (IME), the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Her research is interdisciplinary and grounded in qualitative approaches, often working with experts-by-experience to co-produce knowledge that informs policy and practice.

Research Grants include:

2025–26. Evaluating the effectiveness of the Employer Pays Principle (EPP) in preventing modern slavery in healthcare supply chains. Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre. Find out more.
2023–25. Reducing modern slavery in the health sector’s supply chains for personal protective equipment. Arts and Humanities Research Council.
2021–22. Workplace mental health stigma-reduction interventions: what works? Wellcome Trust.

Teaching

Dr Mei Trueba is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She has held senior course leadership roles, including Course Director for the MSc/PGDip/PGCert in Global Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (2014–2019) and Course Lead for the MSc in International Health at the University of Leeds (2014). She currently convenes the Globalisation and Health module and has led a range of postgraduate and undergraduate modules, including Global Health Principles, Research Practice in Global Contexts, and Research Methods in Global Health.

Her contributions to postgraduate education and student support have been recognised through institutional awards, including the University of Sussex PGR Support Award (2026) and the BSMS Outstanding Support for Learning Experience Award (2026).

Her teaching covers topics such as health governance, anthropological approaches to health, work and wellbeing, sustainable healthcare, research ethics, qualitative methods, research design, and evidence for policy and practice. She also supervises Master’s dissertations, Independent Research Projects and PhD research.

Dr Trueba welcomes doctoral research proposals using ethnographic, qualitative and mixed methods, particularly on business practices, working conditions, social protection, forced labour and modern slavery, and the health and wellbeing of marginalised populations, with a focus on informing policy and practice. Individuals interested in these subjects are encouraged to get in touch.

Selected publications

Brown, J., Hughes, A., Agg, H., Prosser, L., Bostock, B., and Mei Trueba (forthcoming, June 2026). Responsible Recruitment in the Malaysian medical gloves industry: impacts, challenges and recommendations. Brighton: Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Pigrau, A., Ascencio Serrato, S., Burriel Rodríguez, P., Ferrando Hernández, J., and Mei Trueba (2026). Textile Watch. Public procurement and human rights in Catalonia’s textile sector; the need for a monitoring mechanism. Executive Summary. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Setem & University of Sussex. https://www.setem.org/catalunya/actualitat/noticies/textile-watch-la-necessitat-dun-mecanisme-de-monitoratge/

Elsheikh, M., Trueba, M. & Zaman, S. (2025). Traditional healing and mycetoma management in East Sennar State (Sudan): a qualitative exploration. International Journal for Equity in Health,24:296. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02641-w

Alderton, D., Ackley, C., & Trueba, M. (2024). The psychosocial impacts of skin-neglected tropical diseases (SNTDs) as perceived by the affected persons: a systematic review. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 18, e0012391. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012391

Brown, J., Hughes, A., Bhutta, M., Trautrims, A., & Trueba, M. (2024). Synergistic State Governance of Labour Standards in Global Value Chains: Forced Labour in the Malaysia-Nepal-UK Medical Gloves Supply Chain. Competition and Change. https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241272190

Abbott, J., Rizan, C., Smith, J. N., Loeken, M., Trueba, M., & Bhutta, M. (2024). Country of Origin of medical products and risk of labour rights abuse: A cross-sectional analysis using four procurement datasets. Cureus, 16(2), e54258. doi:10.7759/cureus.54258

Trueba, M., Axelrod, T., & Ayeb-Karlsson, S. (2023). Are asylum seekers provided with appropriate mental health support in the United Kingdom? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2181126

Hughes, A., Brown, J., Trueba, M., Trautrims, A., Bostock, B., Day, E., Hurst R., & Bhuttha, M. (2023). Global value chains for medical gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic: Confronting forced labour through public procurement and crisis. Global Networks, 23, 132– 149. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12360

Trueba, Mei L. (2022). Risk negotiations in the mines of Potosí: Implications for rethinking current Health and Safety approaches. In: Ordinary extraordinary. Ethnographies of risk, limits and exposure, edited by Beata Świtek, Hannah Swee, and Allen Abramson. Chapter 3 (pp 60-93). London: Palgrave. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-83962-8_3

Bhutta, M., Bostock, B., Brown, J., Day, E., Hall, A., Hughes, A., Hurst, R., Trautrims, A., & Trueba, M. (2021). Forced Labour in the Malaysian Medical Gloves Supply Chain before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence, Scale and Solutions. London: University of Newcastle. https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/279369

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