Body, Health, Medicine and Death
Knowledge and practices related to medicine, the body, health and death are linked to cosmologies, politics, social structures and local historical legacies. Research at the department offers valuable insights into these processes and people's experiences of health and embodiment, taking into account both the local and the global context. Perspectives that are crucial in medical interventions and public health initiatives.
We examine how social categories, such as gender, class, religion, and ethnicity, impact on the health of individuals, and shape the formation, alteration, and discipline of bodies. The department's research includes studies on male and female genital cutting in Thailand, gender-specific practices related to reproduction, recreational physical training and competing in Sweden, working environment hazards in shipbreaking in Bangladesh, popular cultures of pandemics, violent death in Uganda and abroad, and the West African Ebola epidemic.