Research Unplugged, Episode 1 | Exploring Syndemics with Steven Kavaratzis

MURTAZA: Hi, my name is
Murtaza Haider and I'm the

Associate Dean of
Graduate Programs

at the Ted Rogers
School of Management

and I'm here with
Steven Kavaratzis

who is a PhD scholar
and working on his

doctorate with us.

And Steven, I understand
you're working on pandemics?

STEVEN: Syndemics.
MURTAZA: Syndemics? Okay,

so this is syndemics and
he also told me that there

is no yet vaccine for it.
What is it?

STEVEN: So, syndemics
came from this idea of

wellness and illness
only being studied

in isolation, so we would
look at one illness

at a time and really
focus on understanding that

and it failed to grasp how
illnesses and positive

mechanisms interact.
MURTAZA: Okay.

So, if two illnesses are
the reason one of them

is really bad and we only
are looking at one,

we fail to understand
the system entirely.

MURTAZA: Okay, so how
do you apply it to your

doctoral studies?

STEVEN: Of course, so
syndemics theory and

research started
looking at minoritized

populations that were
especially impacted by

specific epidemics
and what they noticed

is that there were pooling
effects that happened

with things like HIV
and violence and

substance use and
socioeconomic status.

And when they looked
at each of those things

in isolation, they didn't
capture the pooling effect

of how one illness
exacerbated and

influenced the other.

So, fast forward, a lot
of that research that

Merrill Singer and their
colleagues did

started to get applied
to workplaces

to understand how things
like intersectionality and

working conditions,
how they influence

one another and create
exponentially more

problematic or complex
situations and systems.

And in the past, a lot
of these metrics

or outcomes have been
studied in isolation of

one another and therefore
syndemics research argues

that when we study it by
itself, we fail to understand

the entire system.

MURTAZA: Okay, so we
understand now

that the approach
is to look at everything

and now we're looking
at everything and

how does it help
people?

STEVEN: What I think is
really exciting about

some of the research
that I want to do

is looking at it from a
conservation of

resources perspective
and looking at what's

referred to by Hobfoll's
research as resource caravans.

And that says that when
positive effects

caravan onto one another,
they pool their effects

and they have exponentially
more effective results.

Now, just as syndemics
research has looked at

negative effects and how
they pool, there's new research

starting to come out called
counter syndemics

and looking at how
positive resources

can pool collectively in
certain circumstances

and counter the effects
of the syndemic.

MURTAZA: Where are you
in your PhD right now?

STEVEN: So, I finished all
of my courses -

what was really exciting
about the PhD in Management

at TRSM is that because
I was interested from my

master's here in multidisciplinary
research, the program and its

faculty have supported me
in doing courses

in collaboration with the
psychology department,

with the nursing faculty
so that I could develop

a well-rounded scope
in health population research.

Now I've finished my
research proposal

and I'm just in the final
edits and gearing up

to defend it.

MURTAZA: Who will be
your subjects for this study?

STEVEN: I'm looking at a very
broad scope of employees

across multiple organizations
in North America.

So, I'm planning to cast
a wide net so that I can get

a high sample so that I can
ensure that I'm representing

a variety of people and my
goal is to represent

populations that have pooling
intersectionality identities.

MURTAZA: So, tell me about
your experience at Ted Rogers,

I mean you've been here as
a student, I recall you were

in my class -
STEVEN: Yeah.

MURTAZA: We had, I think,
one or two classes you've

taken with me in
research methods.

You've been here,
part of the cohort,

how does it feel?
What are the good

and bad things about
doing a PhD at Ted Rogers?

STEVEN: I have nothing
but great things to say,

it's been incredible.

I'm really grateful that
I've had the opportunity

to take a variety of
methods courses

and I think it's prepared
me well to be able to

contribute to mixed
methods research -

that's something that I think
I'm the most excited about.

Instead of just kind of
hitching my horse onto one -

MURTAZA: Sure.
STEVEN: Methodology - I think it provides

a lot of strength
which is fantastic.

The courses were great,
it went by very quickly,

but I think some of my
favourite courses

were the methods
courses because

I feel like my master's
gave me a really strong

grasp of multidimensional
well-being and then

my PhD allowed me to
explore a variety of

different methods to
understand how I can

measure certain concepts
and also develop a clear

and strong theoretical
framework to explain

why we're demonstrating
the results we are.

MURTAZA: Do you find there's
enough peer support

in the program and do you
find there's enough

institutional support for a
new PhD program,

especially the first few
cohorts that you are part of?

STEVEN: Absolutely and I think
that there's a strength in what

some might label
a weakness of this idea

that you're going through
something that not a lot of

people have finished yet,
so you kind of get to make

the rules with your supervisor and
faculty and peers, which is exciting.

So, my comprehensive exam,
for example, I developed the

entire reading list myself
with my committee.

MURTAZA: So, last question.
People who are watching

and want to do a PhD in
Management -

STEVEN: Yeah.
MURTAZA: What do you want to tell them?

STEVEN: I would say, the best
thing you can do is

contact some of the faculty
that their research

excites you the most
and meet with them

and meet with their
students as well

because then you'll get
a good idea of what it's like

to be a PhD student here,
what it's like to work

with that faculty member
and just go for it

because you're going to be
impressed and amazed

by how much you'll grow
personally, professionally

and you'll develop this
keen and critical eye

to look at the world
in a new way.

MURTAZA: Excellent. Folks,
this is our conversation

with our PhD students
and today we learned

about syndemics.

We'll continue our conversations
with other PhD students.

Thank you for tuning in.
STEVEN: Thanks for having me.