Background and activities

Research interests: medical anthropology, global health, gender-based violence, reproductive health, women's health, migration and health, resilience, implementation/applied research, narrative research, arts-based research, Nepal, South Asia.

 

Current research funding & projects:

2020-2025  co-Principal Investigator with Professor Berit Schei of the second phase of the Addressing Domestic Violence in Antenatal Care Environments study (ADVANCE 2)

  • Awarded 5-years of funding from the Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO)
  • Collaboration between the Department of Public Health and Nursing at NTNU, University of South-Eastern Norway, Linnaeus University (Sweden), Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital (Nepal), and Dhulikhel Hospital-Kathmandu School of Medical Sciences (Nepal)

2019-2022  Principal Investigator of the OPTIMISE study - Optimising pregnancy and childbirth care for immigrant women in Central Norway

  • Awarded 3-years of funding from the Regional Health Authority of Central Norway/Samarbeidsorganet
  • Collaboration between the Department of Public Health and Nursing at NTNU and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Kvinneklinikken) at St. Olavs University Hospital

Current supervision of research students:

  • 2019-2021  Main supervisor for PhD candidate, Namrata Pradhan (study title: Promoting the health of families affected by disability in Nepal)
  • 2020-2021  Co-supervisor for master's student in global health, Susan Sitoula (study title: Prevalence of and factors associated with stress, anxiety, depression, and family quality of life among primary caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in Kathmandu, Nepal)
  • 2019-2023  Main supervisor for medisinstudent i forskerlinjen, Kristin Reppen (study title: Kvinners opplevelse av, og tilfredshet i møte med fødselsomsorgen)
  • 2020-2021  Main supervisor for master's student in global health, Jasmin Tröhler (study title: Perceptions of childbirth care among newcomer women in Norway)

Academic & professional history:

I completed my doctoral degree in social anthropology in Palmerston North, New Zealand (2004-2008). My PhD research explored children's capacities for resilience in the context of domestic violence and other adversities, through a community-based intervention and life-story interviews.

I worked at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, Switzerland from 2008-2011 in project officer roles in the proposals, performance and strategic information teams. This work experience reinforced the challenges of providing foreign aid assistance that reflects the actual needs of intended beneficiaries, of fostering local participation and leadership in aid-donor relationships, and of accurately and meaningfully evaluating project results. I continue to explore these challenges in my current research.

I was postdoctoral researcher at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) from 2011-2013. Here I worked with an interdisciplinary team on the Atlantic Diabetes in Pregnancy (ATLANTIC-DIP) initiative, exploring screening and lifestyle modification to reduce long-term diabetes risks among women with gestational diabetes.

In 2014, I moved to Norway after accepting a position as postdoctoral researcher and project coordinator for the Addressing Domestic Violence in Antenatal Care Environments (ADVANCE) study, led by Professor Berit Schei.

While in Norway, based at NTNU, I have held temporary part-time positions as associate professor of global health. From 2016-2019, I supported the establishment of a new master's programme in global health and shared responsibility for lecturing, input on student research protocols, grading assignments, developing examinations, course coordination, and supervising and examining thesis research projects. I continue to supervise and examine master's students in global health at NTNU.

Future research ideas/interests:

I am interested in contributing to future research collaborations, and supervising master's and PhD research on topics and study designs such as below:

  • designing / adapting / improving research tools to measure: (i) domestic violence in pregnancy in clinical settings, (ii) the quality of maternity care, (iii) the cultural competence of healthcare providers
  • ethnographic research on experiences of immigrant women in Norway with pregnancy, birth and post-partum health care
  • studies of various designs focused on ensuring women's dignity and respectful treatment in maternal or reproductive health services (e.g. reducing disrespectful practices, ensuring safe and satisfactory birth experiences, prioritising women's rights and dignity, reducing hierarchies and horizontal violence in health systems, addressing health provider's own traumas and attitudinal constraints to delivering respectful care, empathy training or other patient-centered approaches to health education)
  • studies using the methodological techniques of narrative research, situational analysis/mapping, or rapid anthropological assessment (RAP)

Scientific, academic and artistic work

A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database

Journal publications

Books

Part of book/report

Report/dissertation