Experience

University of Plymouth

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Associate Lecturer

  • Sep 2021 - Present



King's College London

• United Kingdom
• Research Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Research Associate

  • Feb 2020 - Jan 2022



Maternity

• Planned career break

  • Jul 2019 - Jan 2020



Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Research manager

  • Jan 2019 - Jun 2019

  I worked with data from fertility clinics across the UK, shaping research topics and policy based on current patient experience and fertility trends. I worked with data from fertility clinics across the UK, shaping research topics and policy based on current patient experience and fertility trends.



Healthwatch Essex

• United Kingdom
• Think Tanks
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Research Associate

  • May 2017 - Jan 2019

  I am Senior Research Associate, with expertise in the anthropology of birthing and midwifery care, and social-ecological health. I commission, design and carry out research on health and social care issues raised and driven by public and policy concerns. I am currently working on projects that focus on end of life care, hospital discharge and the social isolation of children. I am Senior Research Associate, with expertise in the anthropology of birthing and midwifery care, and social-ecological health. I commission, design and carry out research on health and social care issues raised and driven by public and policy concerns. I am currently working on projects that focus on end of life care, hospital discharge and the social isolation of children.



University of Cape Town

• South Africa
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Lecturer and PhD candidate in Social Antropology

  • Jan 2014 - Dec 2016

  My PhD topic formed part of the AW Mellon research initiative, The Anthropology of the First 1000 Days. By putting pressure on key terms in policy that focus on the early childhood development period, I explored narratives and models of birth. I examined how birth models operate as modes of recognisability and visibility for doing work within the meta narrative of ‘universally feminine work’ and how the model of birth instantiates and modulates the ways care relations are made. My work concerned the effects, affects and dispositions produced within the myth of bifurcated models of birth. Therefore, my thesis examined the constellation of myth, care and ethics as they materialised in middle-class women's birthing practises.

• Tutor

  • Jan 2009 - Dec 2016

• Lecturer

  • Jul 2015 - Dec 2015

• Research Assistant

  • Apr 2013 - Dec 2013

  I conducted literature searches and literature reviews for the research initiative, The Anthropology of the first 1000 days. Specifically, literature searches were collected, based on the most recent literature (10 years and newer) as well as the historical writings that could form a basis from which research cohorts could access relevant material. The literature reviews focused on reading recent ethnographies that sought to think through life and the ways life is crafted, producing an annotated bibliography and a discussion document that foreground 'life'. I also sourced government records and data for quantitative use and collated the data on birth statistics in South Africa. I read through the latest government drafts and decisions on health care, specifically, on birth, antenatal care, breastfeeding, parenting programmes and the first 1000 days and provided summaries and feedback to my employer.



University of the Western Cape

• South Africa
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Assistant

  • Jan 2012 - Dec 2012

  This work entailed ethnographic research (based in participant-observation) as a research methodology for the biosciences initiative that sought to engage the challenges of environmental issues, policy making and overfishing, with socio-economic problems. As people dependent on fishing for a living were being restricted in the number of fish they could catch as environmental modellers predicted less fish stocks, it became increasingly difficult to survive economically. Poaching often resulted and my research sought to understand why local sea users did not believe the scientific data on fish stocks. I researched the ways people understood the sea, how they worked with the sea and unpacked their knowledge of how the sea and its inhabitants worked. The purpose was to try and create a platform in which government, scientists and local sea users were able to communicate with one another and work towards creating an equitable situation for all: not overfishing to the point of depleting stocks, along with recognising and respecting the socio-economic difficulties for fishers. The research entailed working with local sea users, engaging participant observation by spending time with them, in their own environments, to seek to understand their perspectives and ways of knowing. I sat in on multiple government meetings on stakeholder challenges and issues around socio-economic and environmental concerns, giving me a firm grasp of the ways government sectors communicate with other stakeholders and the various sets of language usage used in governmental focus groups. Having been co-supervised by a marine ecologist and an anthropologist, I was able to learn and become familiar with engaging with bio-scientific community, government and local stakeholders. Used Science and Technology Studies framework for engaging this interdisciplinary approach.