Sussex anthropologists are increasingly renowned for their work in medical anthropology and in the anthropology of science, technology and society. This work uses grounded ethnographic research to bridge the gap between particular contexts and broader global contexts. Our research in this area has examined public concerns over vaccination, genomics, biobanking and genetic testing, and sexual and reproductive health.
Current projects include:
Professor Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
Bionetworking in Asia – anthropology and transnational biomedical collaborations
This international project, an ESRC-funded 3-year project worth over £1.1 million, includes researchers from China, India, Japan, Thailand, and Europe. The project is studying transnational collaboration in the life sciences.
Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients, the project is looking at bio-medical innovation and specifically at the way in which much contemporary research is increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted through international collaborations with Asian countries. It is considering in particular how such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices as well as the variation between different states in their healthcare provision and socio-political regimes.
For more details see The Centre for Bionetworking website.
Raminder Kaur's work on perceptions of nuclear technology in India:
This research considers the way nuclear issues pervade peoples' lives in contemporary India. It does so by focusing on peoples' perceptions and representations of nuclear science and missiles in a locality of Mumbai. With the help of fieldwork, the research reassesses nuclear issues so as they do not remain simply the concern of nation-states and political parties, but are intricately entwined with notions of self, community and imaginings of 'national' and 'international' communities. This is complemented with a focus on how nuclear debates have percolated into aspects of Indian popular culture, such as fiction, dramas, festivals, television and film, and their reception. Thus the research will provide a significant contribution to the available literature that considers nuclear issues and film or popular culture in general in post-war Europe and America.
