Enryka Christopher MSc
- Research Specialist
- she/her
- enrykac [at] uic.edu
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School of Public Health / Psychiatric Institute (SPHPI)
1601 W. Taylor St.
SPHPI MC 912
Chicago IL 60612
Enryka Christopher is a Social Science Research Specialist within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a Clinical Research Specialist with the Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). She works on a variety of projects, primarily on multidisciplinary violence prevention and countering extremist violence at BCH. Her research at UIC encompasses identifying best practices for the rehabilitation and reintegration of children and spouses repatriated from formerly Islamic State-controlled territories. Ryka’s research interests draws from her own lived experience of growing up in, and subsequent leaving of, an extremist religious cult. She is passionate about studying trauma, coercive control, extremist ideology, human trafficking, and forced displacement.
She received her MSc in Global Mental Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London in 2018, focusing her dissertation on community-based child protection services in the occupied Palestinian territories. Her previous work has spanned from bereavement in military families with the Department of Defense to population health studies in South Africa and trauma in Hurricane Katrina survivors with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also acts as a consultant for the International Mental Health Association, a global non-profit dedicated to creating sustainable, community-based mental health supports worldwide.
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trauma, coercive control, extremist ideology, human trafficking, forced displacement, migration, refugees, rehabilitation & reintegration, deradicalization, targeted violence and terrorism prevention
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(Select publications)
Kader, S.B., Rahman, M., Hasan, M., Saba, J., Hossain, M., Kaufman, S., Christopher, E. and Koly, K.N., Workplace violence against doctors in Bangladesh: A content analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, p.5535.
Hasan, M.T., Anwar, T., Christopher, E., Hossain, S., Hossain, M.M., Koly, K.N., Saif-Ur-Rahman, K.M., Ahmed, H.U., Arman, N. and Hossain, S.W., 2021. The current state of mental healthcare in Bangladesh: part 1–an updated country profile. BJPsych International, 18(4), pp.78-82.
Hasan, M.T., Anwar, T., Christopher, E., Hossain, S., Hossain, M.M., Koly, K.N., Saif-Ur-Rahman, K.M., Ahmed, H.U., Arman, N. and Hossain, S.W., 2021. The current state of mental healthcare in Bangladesh: part 2–setting priorities. BJPsych International, 18(4), pp.82-85.
Sayeed, A., Rahman, M.H., Hassan, M.N., Christopher, E., Kundu, S., Al Banna, M.H., Hasan, A.R., Mallick, T., Meem, A.E. and Hasan, M.T., 2021. Problematic internet use associated with depression, health, and internet-use behaviors among University students of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study. Children and Youth Services Review, 120, p.105771.
Roby, N.U., Hasan, M.T., Hossain, S., Christopher, E., Ahmed, M.K., Chowdhury, A.B., Hasan, S. and Ashraf, F., 2020. Puff or pass: do social media and social interactions influence smoking behaviour of university students? A cross-sectional mixed methods study from Dhaka, Bangladesh. BMJ open, 10(11), p.e038372.
Banna, M.H.A., Sayeed, A., Kundu, S., Christopher, E., Hasan, M.T., Begum, M.R., Kormoker, T., Dola, S.T.I., Hassan, M.M., Chowdhury, S. and Khan, M.S.I., 2020. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the adult population in Bangladesh: a nationwide cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, pp.1-12.