The Perinatal Mental Health Project invites you to a talk examining the role of popular music in public health communication in the Gambia, drawing on qualitative research conducted with performers and health workers over a period of 17 years.

Speaker, Dr Bonnie McConnell (Australian National University) will provide a critical overview of significant themes in the literature on music and health communication, including the challenges and benefits of entertainment education approaches, the politicization of health knowledge, celebrity role models, and illness-related stigma.

The talk will then examine the CHIME project in the Gambia, which employed an interdisciplinary partnership approach to address maternal mental health awareness through popular music. It shows that popular songs offer insight into local perspectives and experiences of health and illness, as well as tools for promoting mental wellbeing.

Parking available at the Rondebosch Commons.