Alyssa Mohammed

Feminist geographical analysis of how religion/religious beliefs shape the attitudes of key stakeholders to sex education in Trinidad and Tobago

Alyssa is a DPhil Geography candidate interested in intersections of feminist/intersectional analysis of sexual and reproductive health, rights and discourse, and how these are complicated by sociocultural (post)coloniality in the English-speaking Caribbean. These interests have been shaped by over a decade of volunteer experience in women's organizing and advocacy in Trinidad and Tobago, along with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in feminist/intersectional Sociology and Gender and Development. Her current research examines the role of religion in shaping meanings given to sex education by secondary school stakeholders in Trinidad and Tobago.

For her MSc in Comparative Social Policy (Oxford) thesis, Alyssa utilised qualitative causal methodology (process tracing) to investigate the relationship between maternal mortality and abortion liberalisation in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, exploring the roles of religion, gender composition of parliament and economic strength in the differing outcomes of the very similar countries.