Dr Md Ilias Kamal Risat

Biography

Dr Md Ilias Kamal Risat is a Sociologist and Medical Anthropologist whose research examines healthcare, care practices, and health inequalities, with a particular interest in palliative and end-of-life care. He is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Family Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.

His current research explores access to and experiences of palliative care among racialized older adults from migrant communities originating in the Global South and living in Calgary. The project seeks to understand how cultural backgrounds, family relationships, migration experiences, and healthcare systems shape people’s experiences of care towards the end of life. His broader aim is to contribute to more equitable and culturally responsive palliative care practices in Calgary, Canada.

Dr Risat completed his PhD in Sociology from Brighton and Sussex Medical School at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, in 2024. His doctoral research examined how dying patients, family caregivers, and healthcare professionals in Bangladesh understand and negotiate a good death. Drawing on ethnographic research, his work highlighted the importance of family relationships, social interdependence, and community-based care in shaping end-of-life experiences.

He has held academic and research positions in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom, including an Assistant Professorship at Independent University, Bangladesh, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellows at the University of Sussex. His research has also examined care networks among people living with podoconiosis in Rwanda and patient–provider relationships in humanitarian healthcare settings serving Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, through his work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

His research interests include medical sociology, medical anthropology, palliative and end-of-life care, migration and health, care ethics, and health inequalities. Across his work, he brings social science perspectives to healthcare research, exploring how cultural values, social relationships, and institutional structures shape people’s experiences of illness and care.