Personal profile

Primary fields of research

Qualitative methods and research ethics. Medical anthropology and medical technology. Organ donation and organ transplantation. Science and Technology Studies. Perceptions of the body and death, as well as the problems surrounding the brain death criteria. Sense-making strategies, grieving processes, hope, heroism, identity, narratives, gift exchange, commodification and kinship and relatedness.

Current research

I am Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology. 

Currently, I am research leader on the Sapere Aude project  "TechnEmotion. The interaction between Technology and Emotion in Transplant medicine" funded by the Independent Danish Research Fund
https://publichealth.ku.dk/about-the-department/hsr/technemotion/

I am the Director of Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies www.medicalsts.ku.dk

I hold a Carlsberg Foundation Monograph Fellowship and am working on my book on organ donation and donor families. And in 2014, I recieved a Senior Research Stipend from the Danish Heart Foundation. 

I am also a member of the Semper Ardens project MEINWE (PI Mette Nordahl Svendsen) investigating personlized medicine in the Danish Welfare State. 

My primary research focus is on the social and ethical implications of organ donation and transplantation. I have done research on data practices in Danish transplantation, on how the pig is used in Danish experimental transplant research, on family refusals in organ donation, on the professional challenges of transplant professionals and on the experiences of Danish and American donor families. 

I am the course manager of "Qualitative methods and analysis" at the Master of Public Health programme and of the Elective course "Medical STS - Analysis and Writing" at the Public Health programme. 

 

Teaching

Min undervisning og vejledning drejer sig primært om kvalitative metoder, antropologisk analyse, sundhedsantropologi, etiske dilemmaer i medicin, og spændingsfeltet mellem politik, praksis og erfaring i sundhedsvæsenet 

Sammen med professor Signild Vallgårda er jeg redaktør på 5.udgave af lærebogen "Forskningsmetoder i Folkesundhedsvidenskab", der udkom august 2019.

Jeg er underviser og kursusleder på Faget "Kvalitative Analysestrategier på Master of Public Health (2013,2018,2019, 2020, 2022, 2023) og på valgfaget "Medical STS Analysis and Writing" (2022). Og jeg har været underviser og kursusleder på Kvalitative Analysestrategier og Videnskabsteori på 7.sem Folkesundhedsvidenskab (2012,2014,2015). Jeg underviser desuden på Medicin-uddannelsen på valgfaget "Etiske Dilemmaer indenfor Medicin - Lægens Rolle belyst ved Litteratur og Film" (2017-2020)

Jeg er vejleder på bacheloropgaver, specialer og Phd afhandlinger på Folkesundhedsvidenskab og Master of Public Health indenfor emner som for eksempel forebyggelsespolitik og overvægt, PKU-prøver og forskningsdeltagelse, international genetisk forskning, xenotransplantation, demens, rehabilitering af intensivpatienter, unges mentale sundhed, alkoholpraksis i gymnasiet, livet med cystisk fibrose, sundhedsadfærd blandt indvandrere, praktisering af kliniske retningsliner på neonatalområdet og arbejdsmiljø i sundhedsvæsenet.

Jeg har tidligere undervist kandidatstuderende i medicinsk antropologi på Institut for Antropologi, samt vejledt antropologiske specialer og bacheloropgaver i emner som unges selvmordsforsøg, virksomhedskommunikation, samt leversygdom og transplantation. Derudover bruges jeg som underviser og foredragsholder om organdonation og pårørendeomsorg af sundhedsprofessionelle i hele Skandinavien, og bidrager også som forfatter i lærebøger på sundhedsfaglige uddannelser. Review for: "Medical Anthropology Quarterly", "Anthropology and Medicine", "Tidsskrift for Sygdom og Samfund" "Sociology of Health and Illness", "Social Science & Medicine", "Bioethics", "Health - an interdisciplinary Journal", og forlaget Routledge.

Education/Academic qualification

Antropologi, PHD, Orchestrating an Exceptional Death: Donor Family Experiences and Organ Donation in Denmark, Department of Anthropology

1 Jan 200822 Sept 2011

Award Date: 22 Sept 2011

Antropologi, Cand.scient.anth, "Those who give and grieve - an anthropological study of American donor families, Department of Anthropology

1 Sept 20047 Mar 2007

Award Date: 7 Mar 2007