I am Associate Professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment, where I lead the Global Health Politics research group. I am also Honorary Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Co-Director of the Collective for the Political Determinants of Health, and co-Editor-in-Chief of Globalization & Health.
With a grounding in medical anthropology, my current research focuses on how global public-private partnerships, philanthropies and corporations are reshaping global health governance, knowledge production and policymaking.
I currently lead the PANPREP project, which is studying new public-private partnerships in Norway's pandemic preparedness and response, focusing on Norway's involvement in experimental global initiatives like COVAX. The project examines new forms of cooperation in the domains of pandemic financing, disease surveillance technologies, vaccine R&D and procurement, and emergency medical response. I also lead the Smartphone Pandemic project, which analyses experimental smartphone technologies and mobile data as pandemic response tools in Norway, Sierra Leone, Myanmar and the UK, as part of a broader critical engagement with the rise of 'digital health'.
Previous research has focused on civil society engagement in global health governance and the politics of metrics, evidence and fragmentation within the global health enterprise, with case studies of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. I have also conducted extensive collaborative health systems and policy research on maternal and reproductive health policy, notably on the social, financial and health consequences of life-threatening delivery and abortion complications in Burkina Faso.
My research has been funded by a Norwegian Research Council (NRC) Young Scientist Grant (GLOBVAC) and project grants from the NRC, Economic and Social Research Council and UK Department for International Development (DFID), and has been published in journals including Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Social Science & Medicine, Global Public Health, Health Policy & Planning, Globalization & Health and The Lancet.
As a founding member of the Young Academy of Norway, I was elected board member (2017-2018) and Chair (2018-2019). I am the current Chair of the University of Oslo's branch of the Norwegian Association of Researchers.
Background
Before joining the University of Oslo as a postdoc in 2010, I was research fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (2002-2010). I have a PhD from the University of London (LSHTM) (2010), an MSc in Medical Anthropology from University College London (2002) and a BA in Psychology and Social Studies of Medicine from McGill University (2001).
Teaching
I convene SUM4200 - Key Issues in Development and Environment and SUM4023 - The Political Economy of Global Health. In 2020, I convene SUM4503 – The Politics of Pandemics: Security, Development and Global Governance Challenges (5 credits) and in 2022, I co-convened an international PhD course on Digitalization, Health and Society.