Current Position

 Currently, I am Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). I am lecturing in the Bachelor of Cultural Anthropology and the Master of Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS) and I am  co-director of the MAS. In addition I am thesis supervisor in the Cultural Anthropology and MAS Masters programs and co-supervisor of a number of PhD-candidates.  Most of my own research work is related with infertility and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs).  

Short CV

In 2008 I received my PhD (cum laude ) at the University of Amsterdam based on my dissertation, which is a hospital ethnography entiteld 'Clinical Encounters. Dynamics of patient-centred practices in a Dutch fertility clinic'. Before that I studied Cultural Anthropology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (BA) and at the University of Amsterdam (MA), and Communication Sciences (Voorlichtingskunde) at the University of Wageningen. In Amsterdam I specialized in Medical Anthropology and obtained my Master's degree (cum laude) in 1994 after completing a MA thesis on 'Social and cultural aspects of infertility among the Macua in the north of Mozambique'. Previously I have worked as researcher, policy advisor and health educator at the Mozambican Ministry of Health (1985-1990).

From 1991 until 2007 I worked at the Medical Anthropology Unit (MAU)at the UvA, where I was involved as researcher,  technical advisor, project assistant and/or coordinator in various (applied) health research projects in the Netherlands and abroad. Research topics included reproductive health issues; medicine use among Dutch children; migrants and vaccinations; the evaluation of the Dutch governmental cooperation in the field of Health, Nutrition and Population (1995-1999); access and adherence to antiretrovirals (ARVs); and specific aspects in HIV/AIDS prevention activities for ethnic minorities in The Netherlands . In this period I have also coordinated the international PRMUC Course (Promoting Rational Medicine Use in the Community), which had been developed by the WHO, RTI (Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam) and the MAU and was involved in teaching, in particular in the AMMA (Amsterdam Master of Medical Anthropology). From 2010-2012 I also was AMMA director.

Core Research Interest: Infertility and  Assisted Reproductive Technologies
For my master's thesis I studied the meaning, consequences  and help seeking behaviour of infertile Macua women in the north of Mozambique. This study resulted in a number of publications and presentations on infertility and childlessness 'in the south', which topic until then had received scarce attention from anthropologists and in the field of international health.  I was one of the initiators and organizers of the first 'Social Science Research on Childlessness in a global perspective', which was held in Amsterdam in 1999.

With my PhD-thesis 'Clinical encounters. Dynamics of patient-centred practices in a Dutch fertility clinic' I continued in the same area of interest, though I focused on the medical practices and medicalization of infertility in a western context. What makes (many) people with fertility problems so persistent in their use of fertility treatment (and IVF in particular) once they have visited a fertility clinic? What makes it so difficult to jump off the roller coaster of treatment? And in particular, in what way does visiting a fertility clinic - and the experience of clinical encounters - affect people in terms of the (further) medicalization of their fertility problems? These were the questions that formed the starting point for my study, in which I portray the daily practices of a Dutch fertility clinic and provide insight into the situated accounts of couples visiting this clinic. Further, in this thesis I examine - inspired by Foucauldian notions on the workings of disciplinary power - how these clinical encounters affect the experiences and views of people with fertility problems and their (further) use of fertility services and technologies. By looking in such detail at the complex and dynamic relationship between clinical practice and people's experiences, my thesis intends to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of women's and men's responses to reproductive technology, and more broadly, seeks to advance the theoretical understanding of processes of medicalization in clinical practice.

Currently, I am involved in  a comparative study on the Appropriation and Use of ARTs in Sub-Saharan Africa, a study initiated and coordinated by Viola Hörbst, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and hosted by the Centro de Estudos Africanos e Brasileiros (CEAB) at the ISCSP, Technical University of Lisbon. 
This multi-sited study takes places in Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique/South-Africa. Three major research lines, concerned with the appropriation of ART in Africa, will be explored:

•  the mobility of both providers and end-users across the globe (South-South, North-South, South-North) and the emergence of transnational networks
• the mobility of artefacts, practices, skills and ethics associated with ARTs
• the locally specific structures and historical contexts that in turn shape form and praxis of those technologies

As part of this study I am doing field research in two private fertility clinics in Ghana.

External Tasks

• Co-chair of the Social Science Group of the Taskforce 'Infertility Care in Developing Countries' of ESHRE,  the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.
• Representative of the UvA-AIISSR Health Care and the Body Research group in Sharenet, the Dutch network organisation in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health.
• Dutch Committee member of SANPAD, the South Africa Netherlands research Programme on Alternatives in Development

Keywords

Infertility, reproductive health, reproductive technology, medicalization, hospital ethnography, ethics, Ghana, Mozambique

Keywords

Infertility, reproductive health, reproductive technology, medicalization, hospital ethnography, ethics, Ghana, Mozambique

In 2013-2014 I am involved in the Master Medical Anthropology and Sociology as Program Director. and in the Bachelor Cultural Anthropoly I teach Reproduction,  Health and Technologies.

Currently, I am co-supervisor of the following Phd-Candidates: 

Marije Visser (UvA-AMC, with Prof. Fulco van der Veen)

Ines Faria (School of Social and Political Sciences, Technical University of Lisbon, with Dr. Viola Hörbst)

Lucia Linda Yevoo  (WUR, with Prof. Han van Dijk)

Matilda Aberese-Ako (WUR, with Prof. Han van Dijk)

Matilda Hanna Marisol Henao Vanegas (AISSR, with Prof. Ria Reis)

Carla Rodrigues (AISSR, with Prof. Anita Hardon)