Academic interests
Davina Kaur Patel is a medical doctor and anthropologist, whose research work explores the intersections of health and ecology amid socioecological/ planetary crises. Davina joined the Department for Community Medicine & Global Health as a Doctoral Research Fellow in August 2023. Davina's doctoral project is a part of the transdisciplinary NFR-project 'Anthropogenic Soils - Recuperating Human-Soil Relationships on a Troubled Planet'.
Davina’s doctoral monograph, “Unruly Ecologies: In the Remains of Punjab’s Green Revolution”, presents an ethnography of postcolonial science and more-than-human entanglements. In the remains of the Green Revolution in Punjab, where intensive paddy-wheat crop cycles have come to dominate the landscape, state agricultural scientists, capitalist farmers, and alternative cultivators are grappling with the socioecological consequences of decades of ecologically and economically intensive and progressively unviable farming. Following state scientists and alternative farmers through agricultural universities, demonstration fields, agricultural extension centres, government offices, permaculture and natural farms, Davina’s project explores how scientists and alternative farmers are navigating and responding to socioecological crisis as it manifests through interconnected bodies of soil, water, air, human and more-than-human beings in a fragile landscape; one in which the legacies of colonialism, Partition, Green Revolution, anti-Sikh riots and communal violence persist, and dreams of postcolonial development, political autonomy and ecological sovereignty still hold. Davina’s approach is informed by medical anthropology, feminist science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and planetary health, providing insight into multispecies care, ethics, and environmental justice.
Davina's research interests also include migration, racism and health inequities, and she in 2018 she obtained her MPhil in International Community Health at the University of Oslo. Her Masters thesis was an ethnography of the health situation of migrating street-workers in Oslo.
Davina is a medical doctor trained at University College London, and has worked clinically for seven years in general/ internal medicine, emergency medicine and sexual and community health. Davina is currently a volunteer doctor at the Health Centre for Undocumented Migrants in Oslo.
Davina works 25% as part of her doctoral position, teaching medical students social medicine including migration & health, racism, discrimination & health, social medicine aspects of drug addiction; and climate change & health, amongst others.
Teaching
I have taught in the following courses for both medical students and Masters students in International Community Health at the Faculty of Medicine:
- MED1100 - Medical Studies, module 1
- MED4500 - Medical Studies, module 5
- MED5700 - Medical Studies, module 7
- MED6800 - Medical Studies, module 8
- MED3002 - Qualitative Methods in Health Research
- INTHE4122 - Migration and Health
- MED3066 - Climate Change & Health
- ISSMF4206 - International Community Health
Background
- Visiting Researcher, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University, India (2024-2025)
- University Lecturer, Department for Community Medicine and Global Health (full-time), University of Oslo (2021-2022)
- Medical Doctor (General Practice), Oslo Emergency Department (2020- 2022)
- University Lecturer, Department for Community Medicine and Global Health (part-time), University of Oslo (2020)
- Medical Doctor (Sexual Health), Olafiaklinikken, Oslo University Hospital (2020)
- Medical Doctor (Internal Medicine), Notodden hospital, Hamar hospital, Vesterålen hospital (2018-2020)
- MPhil in International Community Health, University of Oslo (2018)
- Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, Royal College of Physicians, U.K (2016)
- Clinical Fellowship in Sexual & Reproductive health, Homerton Hospital, U.K. (2015)
- Junior Medical Doctor, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Wycombe Hospital, U.K (2013-2015)
- MBBS Medicine, University College London (2013)
- Intercalated BSc in International Health, University College London (2009)
Other positions
- Board Member, Norwegian Forum for Global Health Research (2025-2027)
- Academic Mentee, European Association of Social Anthropologists (2025-2026)
- Volunteer Doctor, Health Centre for Undocumented Migrants, Oslo (2020 - present)
- Member, Racism, Discrimination & Health Working Group
Media Dissemination
- Lege - vi kan ikke lenger skille menneskenes helse fra jordas helse (We can no longer separate human health and soil health)
- Rasisme er en trussel mot folkehelsa (Racism is a threat to public health)
- Et løft for mangfold, likestilling og inkludering ved MED (A lift for diversity, equality and inclusion at the Faculty of Medicine)
Awards
- Qualification Scholarship, The Science Studies Colloquium Series, University of Oslo, 2026
- Research Grant, Falkenbergs stiftelse, 2026
- Activity Grant, Norwegian Anthropological Association (NAF), 2026
- Research Stay Abroad Grant, Research Council of Norway, 2024/25
- Research Grant, Oslo Church City Mission, 2017