Dr Nadine Beckmann
PhD
Associate Professor
in Social Science (UK-PHRST)
I'm a medical anthropologist whose research has previously focused on HIV/AIDS, Islam, ethics and medical governance, collective action, sexual practice, and reproductive health. I have done ethnographic work in Tanzania and South Sudan and recently worked with a large population-based study on HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, where I have just finished a study on rapid HIV testing. I have also been working on a project on underlying reasons for ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes. Before joining the UK-PHRST/LSHTM, I taught anthropology at the University of Roehampton, development studies at the University of Leeds, and held research fellowships at Bradford University and the University of Oxford.
Affiliations
Research
My key research areas include gender, sexuality, and reproduction; life with HIV/AIDS, health care provision, and the politics of infectious disease control; Islam and Islamic reformism; Islamic ethics and bioethics; and civil society and collective action. I specialise in working with East African Muslim populations, but have also carried out research in Zimbabwe and South Sudan. I have conducted in-depth ethnographic fieldwork on life with HIV/AIDS, the rollout of antiretroviral treatment and the management of love, sex and romance on the Swahili coast; pregnancy care and childbirth decision-making in Zanzibar; and projects on the politicisation of AIDS activism; obstetric fistula in South Sudan and misclassification errors in rapid HIV testing in Zimbabwe. I currently lead the Staying Alive project, which investigates non-biomedical healing approach in response to HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 in eastern Zimbabwe and work with the UK-PHRST to develop a social science research strategy for epidemic outbreak response. Beyond infectious disease work, I am interested in everyday practice and the negotiation of sexual and reproductive health in the framework of Islamic bioethics; and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes.