Claudia Merli

Short presentation

Claudia Merli is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, specialised in Medical Anthropology, and in the critical anthropological study of disasters. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Southern Thailand among the Malay-Muslims since 2002. She is currently working on an interdisciplinary project on hazard and respiratory health related to volcanic ash, with fieldwork in Southern Japan (2016). She explores cultural and symbolic elements of COVID-19 from a historical perspective.

Keywords

• disaster risk reduction
• disaster vulnerability
• gender and sexuality
• medical anthropology
• body theory
• Thailand
• tsunami
• ethnic politics and implicit attitudes
• reproductive rights
• population control
• volcanology
• identity
• border conflict
• gender and disasters
• Japan
• Italy
• culture-bound syndromes
• amok
• latah

Biography

Merli is a Cultural Anthropologist specialising in the anthropology of health/medical anthropology and disaster anthropology. Her main focus of research in Medical Anthropology is reproductive health and bodily practices in Southern Thailand, including practices of male and female genital cutting. Her book Bodily Practices and Medical Identities in Southern Thailand has been reviewed in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies as a fine example of in-depth study of local cosmologies and analysis of the state's biopower. After holding academic positions at Durham University from 2009 to 2017 (last as Associate Professor), she started her current position as Docent/Associate Professor at Uppsala University in January 2018. She was the main convener and organizer of The Fourth Northern European Conference of Emergency and Disaster Studies https://needs2019.wordpress.com/ held in Uppsala in June 2019.

2022-2024 She trained and became qualified as Samtalsterapeut/Psychodynamic therapist at the Göteborgs Psykoterapi Institut (GPI). She further trained in trauma (GPI) and psychoanalytic theory (Swedish Psychoanalytical Association) in 2025.

Indicators of esteem

2022–2023 Senior Global Horizons Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.

2020 Keynote address on ‘Gender and Culture in Southern Thailand’, at the International Seminar “Gender, Security and Women’s Human Rights in Southern Thailand”, Center of Excellence on Women and Social Security, Walailak University, Thailand (26 September).

Since 2018 Fellow of the Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science, Uppsala University (CNDS)

2014—2017 Member of ASEASUK Executive Committee, UK

2013–2017 Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute, UK

2012—2017 Member of the Medical Anthropology Committee of The Royal Anthropological Institute, UK

Since 2012 FRAI (Fellow of The Royal Anthropological Institute), UK

Since 2012 FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) UK

Service to the academic community

Scientific assessor for funding agencies: COST-European Cooperation in Science & Technology (2025), PICA-Star (2025), MSCA (2020, 2021), Belgian Public Research Programme (2021), British Academy’s Newton Fund Grants (2015), ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council UK) (2012, 2017).

Ethics expert for Horizon Europe, EU's program for research and innovation (since September 2023).

Member of the steering committee for GlobeLife, which strengthens collaboration through research and training in the field of global health both within and between Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet.

Member of the Board at the Centre for Medical Humanities, Uppsala University (2022-2026).

Member of the Advisory Board for the FACE-UP Consortium: Factors Affecting Childhood Exposure to Urban Particulates.

Member of the steering committee for Development Research Conference (DevRes2022) "Transforming Development Research for Sustainability"

Since 2024 member of EuroSEAS board and Chair for the Nordics.

Since 2019 member of the Steering Committee for the Network of European Emergency and Disaster Studies (NEEDS).

2018–2026 Co-coordinator of DiCAN (Disaster and Crisis Anthropology Network), European Association of Social Anthropologists).

2015 Country of Origin Information (COI) expert with special knowledge of FGM for Rights In Exile Programme https://rightsinexile.org/country-of-origin-information/thailand-coi/

2013 Swedish National Agency for Higher Education: member of the expert panel to evaluate education in ethnology and anthropology

Editorial positions

Since March 2026– Member of the Editorial Board of Anthropology & Medicine (Taylor & Francis)

2015–2026 member of the Editorial Board of Human Remains and Violence (Manchester University Press)

2009–2017 General Editor of Durham Anthropology Journal (DAJ)

Ad-hoc reviewer for Anthropology & Medicine; Asian Women; Asian Ethnology; Berghahn (monograph); Cultural Anthropology; Culture, Health and Sexuality; Culture Unbound; Current Sexual Health Reports; History & Anthropology; Human Organization; Human Remains and Violence; International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters; International Journal of Disaster Risk Science; International Journal of Women’s Health; Kritisk etnografi; Manchester University Press (monograph); Medical Anthropology; Medical Anthropology Quarterly; Modern Asian Studies; NIAS (monograph); Religion; Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy; Shima; Social Sciences and Humanities Open; Social Science & Medicine; Social Science & Medicine – Mental Health; Southeast Asia Research; Women’s Journal; Women’s Studies International Forum.

Other interests

During her undergraduate studies, Merli pursued her long-term musical passion and obtained a Diploma of Piano from the Conservatoire of Perugia, followed by one year at the Experimental School of Chamber Music at ’S. Cecilia' Conservatoire in Rome. She was active in both chamber music ensembles and as a solo pianist until 2002. During her time at Durham University, she joined the vibrant activity of the Durham Gamelan Society, where she was learning Javanese gamelan music. She attended Taiko (Japanese drumming) workshops in the UK and Sweden. Merli's former art education plays a relevant role in her anthropological modes of exploring the visual.

Research

Research focus

Merli's main research focus is the Southeast Asian region and Thailand, where she has conducted fieldwork in Southern Thailand with several research grants on male and female genital cutting, gendered bodily practices related to reproduction, Buddhist and Muslim female spirit mediums, ethno-religious conflict in Southern Thailand since 2002, and the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami since its occurrence. She is also investigating matters of fertility and population growth in Thailand's policies.

In 2016, Merli started fieldwork in Japan with a project on local perceptions of health and volcanic ash, in the area of the Sakurajima volcano, as part of the HIVE consortium (Health Interventions in Volcanic Eruptions) http://community.dur.ac.uk/hive.consortium/about.php for which she is responsible for the qualitative research in Indonesia, Mexico and Japan. Research funding was received from R2HC (Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis) and Wellcome/DfID.

In 2016-2017 she started research on another disaster context that deserves a long-term analysis, the 1963 Vajont Dam disaster and mega tsunami in Northern Italy; she led an interdisciplinary team that analysed the social, archaeological and forensic legacies of the catastrophe. The research received coverage in Italian newspapers and regional news is showcased in local museums. Research funding and support were received from Durham University.

During 2020 Claudia Merli followed the unfolding of the corona pandemic in Sweden and Japan. She took part in public debate, with interviews for the Uppsala University Research spotlight: The Corona virus, local news, and with Swedish Radio on the visual information material produced by different countries. Following an initial analysis of social media discourse on a pandemic icon used in Japan, visual research methods and historical contextualisation, her article on the marine chimeric being, the yōkai Amabie was published in October 2020 in Anthropology Today (which was awarded a Top downloaded article certificate in 2022 by Wiley). She is now investigating the COVID-19 pandemic and Long COVID in Japan and Sweden from a comparative perspective.

Merli has a long-standing interest in ethnopsychiatry/cross-cultural psychiatry since her earlier work on culture-bound syndromes (particularly in South East Asia and Japan) and how the category of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is extremely problematic in itself and in its cross-cultural applications.

Theoretically, Claudia explores the intersections between Foucauldian biopower, biopolitics, governmentality, and phenomenological perspectives on the body, putting the body in context. For her other strand of research, Merli applies critical perspectives in risk research and anthropological study of long-term post-hazard social processes, especially theological discourses, contextual theodicies and related politics.

Fieldwork

Thailand: July –August 2002; July–August 2003; February–April 2004, June–August 2004, November 2004–March 2005; March–June 2006; April and December 2009–January 2010; December 2010–January 2011; October–November 2014 archival research in Bangkok; March–April 2015; July 2019

Japan May and September 2016; January 2020

Italy March–April and September–October 2017, July 2022.

Awards and Research grants (selection)

Fellow in residence, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study during academic year 2022-2023.

Faculty of History and Philosophy, Visiting Guest Professorship for Prof. Lenore Manderson 2022.

Luttemans stipendium, Uppsala University 2019

RJ Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Projekt 2019 Den fjärde nordeuropeiska konferensen om kris och katastrofstudier - NEEDS 2019

VR Vetenskapsrådet 2018 Konferens Den fjärde nordeuropeiska konferensen om kris och katastrofstudier - NEEDS 2019

Writing grant, Uppsala University 2017

NEDT North East Doctoral Training Centre 1 PhD scholarship (full funding 3.5 years) 2016

Seedcorn Funding, Durham University 2016 for a project on the Vajont dam disaster (leading a 4-person team).

Economic and Social Research Council UK 1 PhD scholarship (full funding 3.5 years) 2015

R2HC (Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis) from Wellcome/DfID 2015–2018 (co-applicant and co-investigator)

Wellcome Trust 1 PhD scholarship DU (full funding 3 years) 2014

The Seedcorn Funding Durham University for archival research in Thailand 2014.

Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation for project on pregnancy loss in Southern Thailand 2008

The Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation project ‘Female and male circumcision in Southern Thailand’ 2007

Margot and Rune Johansson Foundation project ‘Tsunami: Buddhist and Islamic local discourses’ 2005

The Donner Institute of Åbo Academy 2003

Research supervision and mentorship

At Uppsala University, Merli is currently the main supervisor for Márcia Manhique's PhD research project on maternal health and technologies in Mozambique (funded by SIDA), and second supervisor for two projects (Matías Menalled and Marcelo Pablo Pacheco).

Completed PhD:

• Mirko Pasquini: The Negotiation of Urgency: Economies of Attention in an Italian Emergency Room. Uppsala Universitet 2021 (2nd supervisor).
• Macario Lacbawan: The Burden of Responsibility: Predicaments of Environmental Life in the Caraballo Mountains, Northern Philippines. Uppsala Universitet 2022 (2nd supervisor).
• Alessandro Corso: Lives at the Border: Abandonment and Survival at the frontier of Lampedusa. Durham University 2019 (main supervisor and grant capture).
• Nattaporn Kaimook: The study of Wai Phra Kao Wat in Bangkok, Thailand. Durham University 2018 (main supervisor)
• Ben Kasstan: Immunities at the margins: Negotiating health and bodily care among Haredi Jews in the UK. Durham University 2016 (main supervisor and grant capture)
• Armando Norman: The Quality and Outcomes Framework as a Biomedical Technology: Consequences for UK General Practice. Durham University 2015 (2nd supervisor)

She facilitated and hosted two Erasmus+ exchange postdoctoral collaborations and guest lectures for Michele Fontefrancesco and Ben Kasstan at Uppsala University (2020). She was also a mentor for postdoctoral researcher Ernesto Schwartz-Marin during the HIVE consortium research (2015-2018) at Durham University. 

Faculty examiner and panel member for PhD degrees

Claudia Merli has acted as an External Faculty examiner (opponent) for several doctoral theses, in Sweden and the UK.

• Camilla Palm, Navigating Conflicting Norms on Body and Sexuality: Exploring Swedish-Somali Women's and Swedish Welfare Workers' Perceptions of Female Genital Cutting. Malmö Universitet 2024.
• Hannah Swee, On the edge of paradise: Living with cyclones in Far North Queensland, Australia. University College London 2016.
• Seumas Bates, ‘Just another hurricane’: the lived experience of everyday life in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. University of Glasgow 2014.
• Arielle Rittersmith, Convention, Control and Creativity : The Case of Chinese Medicine in Singapore. University of Oxford 2010.

She has chaired examination boards (Durham University 2017; Stockholm University 2020) or served as a member of examination boards (Uppsala University 2017; Karolinska Institutet 2025; Uppsala University for two doctoral defences in 2025).

Media

Merli contributed expert commentary to Swedish and international media on disaster anthropology, risk, public health, and environmental crises.

2026 Interview “Department representation in panel at Almedalen 2026" (26 May) https://www.uu.se/en/department/cultural-anthropology-and-ethnology/research/researcher-portraits/claudia-merli/almedalen-2026

2022 Interview for The Local newspaper on reluctance to use respiratory protection during COVID-19 in Sweden (published on 2 February 2022) https://www.thelocal.se/20220202/analysis-why-dont-more-people-in-sweden-wear-face-masks/

2020 Interview for Uppsala University’s spotlight on Coronavirus, ‘Coronavirus message does not always get through’ (1 April). https://www.uu.se/en/news/archive/2020-04-01-coronavirus-message-doesnt-always-get-through

2016e "Disastro del Vajont: Uno studio internazionale analizza i fenomeni sociali". Bellunesi nel Mondo 51 (9): 18-19 https://www.centrostudialetheia.it/wp-content/uploads/edd/2023/01/bnm_9_ottobre_2016.pdf

2016d ‘“Tsunami alpino”, studio sul disastro della diga’. Il Messaggero Veneto (12 September)  https://www.messaggeroveneto.it/cronaca/tsunami-alpino-studio-sul-disastro-della-diga-cj54zgmm

2016c Intervju 'Vajont, La teoria dello "tsunami alpino"', Montagna TV (12 September) https://www.montagna.tv/98089/vajont-la-teoria-dello-tsunami-alpino/

2016b Article on the project "Il feltrino Forlin nel team inglese: Antropologi e archeologi all’opera a turno nell’area colpita dalla tragedia". Il Corriere delle Alpi (7 September) https://www.corrierealpi.it/cronaca/il-feltrino-forlin-nel-team-inglese-rtymvjtm

2016a Interview 'Vajont, uno studio sullo tsunami alpino'. Il Corriere delle Alpi (7 September) https://www.corrierealpi.it/cronaca/vajont-uno-studio-sullo-tsunami-alpino-nk6eedas

2010 Interview for the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, published in Newsletter. ‘Context-bound theodicies: When God, nature and politics meet’. https://viewer.joomag.com/hazard-risk-resilience-magazine-volume-1-issue-2/0235867001406812904/p10

Third Mission

Claudia has regularly been invited to act as an expert, speaker, panellist and seminar leader in academic and public contexts. Her work covers areas including global health, medical anthropology, ethics, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), religion and development, and innovative approaches within the humanities. She has contributed to knowledge exchange and capacity building in both national and international contexts.

2026 Co-organizer of GlobeLife Panel 2 "Stärkt ömsesidig kunskapsöverföring och kapacitetsbyggande inom global hälsa”, Almedalen, 23 June. 

2026 Invited expert to the roundtable on Academic reference groups for the theme ”Hälsa och SRHR [Sexual and reproductive health and rights]”, SIDA, 30 March.

2025 Collaboration with Feministiska humanister, open lecture on “Clashing Ethics on Genital Cutting”, 10 December.

2025 Collaboration with Studentförening Etnograferna and Folkuniversitet on “Generative multimodality”, a lecture workshop on using art as analytical tool, 17 November.

2022 Collaboration as expert and seminar leader with Transkulturellt Centrum (Region Stockholm) for a training workshop ”Medicinsk antropologi för kliniskt verksamma”, 4 and 11 May. The workshop focused on cultural aspects of PTSD and traumatized people with different cultural backgrounds.

2019 Discussant during celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Vietnam. Organized by Uppsala University, Uppsala Short Film Festival and the Vietnam Film Institute.

2015 “Religion and Development” initiative organized by Global Focus with funding from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to improve Danish Development cooperation, 21 August.

2011 Presentation 'Genital cuttings and relative ethics'. Café Politique, Ustinov College, Durham University, 15 February.