Mette Nordahl Svendsen

CV

Education

2004: PhD in anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

1996: Msc in anthropology (Cand.scient.anth.), Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

Prizes, awards, and positions of trust

2025: Elected member, Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters (KDVS)

2017: Semper Ardens Distinction by the Carlsberg Foundation

2015: Steven Polgar Professional Paper Prize by the Society for Medical Anthropology for the best article in the journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly

2013: Sapere Aude distinction by the Danish Research Council for Independent Research for the research project “A Life Worth Living: Negotiating Worth in Human and Animal”

2012: Cultural Horizons Prize 2012 by the Society for Cultural Anthropology for the best article in the journal Cultural Anthropology in 2011 

Current position

Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Professional Experience

2022-: Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

2017-2021: Professor MSO, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

2008-2017: Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

2005-2008: Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

2004-2005: Project Manager, The Danish Institute of Health Services Research (DSI) (one maternity leave in the period)

1999-2004: PhD student, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen (two maternity leaves in the period)

1998: Research assistant, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Leadership

2021-2024: Head of ‘Section for Health Services Research’, Department of Public Health, UCPH (50 employees at all career levels + 2 secretaries)

2017-: Head of the research group ‘MeInWe’ (10-15 scholars at all career levels)

2016-2019: Director of the Master of Public Health Study Program, UCPH

2013-2017: Head of the research group ‘LifeWorth’ (1 senior scholar and 3 PhD students)

2012-2017: Director of Center for Medical Science and Technology Studies, UCPH

2010-: Member of the Study Board for Master of Public Health, UCPH

2010-2013: Faculty PhD-coordinator for more than 100 PhD students

Main Funding

2025-2028: Plants Edited for the Green Transition (PLANT:E): Funding: Independent Research Fund Denmark (PI, 3.2 mio DKK)

2023-2028: MORPHEUS: Funding: Horizon Europe (Partner, 2.8 mio DKK)

2022-2025: REDESIGN: Funding: EraPerMed (Consortium partner, 2.3 mio DKK)

2020-2026: TRANSLATE: Funding: Innofund Denmark (Partner, 0.72 mio DKK)

2020-2023: RESBOD Funding: The Norwegian Research Council (Partner, 0.49 mio NOK)

2019-2022: PM Heart: Funding: Nordic Research Council (Partner, 0,36 DKK)

2017-2024: Personalized Medicine in the Welfare State (MeInWe). Funding: The Carlsberg Foundation (PI, 15 mio DKK). Semper Ardens Advance grant to support visionary research projects at the highest international level

2013-2019: A Life Worth Living: Negotiating Worth in Human and Animal (LifeWorth) Funding: Independent Research Fund Denmark (PI, 7 mio DKK) Sapere Aude Fellowship for gifted researchers

Research stays abroad

2023: Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Frazer University, CA

2015: Department of Anthropology, University of Santa Cruz, USA

2002: Department of Sociology, University of Lancaster, England

1994: Fieldwork in Bucharest, Romania

1992-1993: Erasmus student, Oxford Brookes University, UK

Memberships

2023: Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI)

2006-: European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)

2013-: American Association of Anthropologists (AAA)

Primary fields of research

I work at the forefront of the integrated study of medicine, health, and society. My disciplinary background is in anthropology and my field of expertise is medical anthropology and medical Science and Technology Studies (STS). With ethnographic methods, my research explores the mutual relationship between science and society focusing on personalized medicine, animal-based experimental science, and reproductive medicine. In these biomedical fields I inquire the ethical, existential and political aspects of translation across the laboratory, the clinic, and the public. Conceptually, I direct attention to the border zones of human existence, investigating how borders between person and thing, body and genome, human and animal, life and death are governed across the lab and the clinic. Methodologically, I have developed multi-sited and multi-species comparative approaches to investigate life and its value in the context of new biomedical technologies.

I see research as a collaborative achievement. In my own research group, I have developed new ways of doing ethnography collectively (sharing field sites and fieldnotes and writing collectively). I also collaborate closely with health professionals and biomedical researchers, facilitating exchanges across academic fields and advancing humanistic inquiry into the uses of medical technology. 

I’m currently directing the research group MeInWe and engaged in projects on the ethical, organizational, and legal dimensions of personalized medicine.

Read more:

The MeInWe research group: Link

Portrait in SUND Insight: Link

Short videos: Link