Heidi Fjeld

Image of Heidi Fjeld
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Phone +47 22850603
Mobile phone +47 990 13 401
Room 182
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Visiting address Fredrik Holst's house
Postal address Postboks 1130 Blindern 0318 Oslo

Academic interests

Heidi Fjeld holds a doctoral degree in social anthropologist and is a professor in medical anthropology at Helsam. Her studies of social organization in farming communities in Tibet led her to an interest in how health and medical practices are closely linked to social, cultural, economic and political aspects of people's lives. Central to her professional interests is, on the one hand, the vast cultural variation in how people perceive bodies' constitution, the causes of diseases, good/bad health and relevant treatments, and on the other hand, how these understandings form – and are formed – by social and religious life. Her research interests are divided into three main tracks: 1) health and medicine in the Himalayas (Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan), 2) antibiotic trajectories and antimicrobial resistance in the global south and 3) health and access to services for transmigrants, i.e. people who move temporarily between different places. Within Tibet and Himalaya anthropology, she works on topics related to the organization of social life, including kinship, marriage, social rank and hierarchies, as well as Tibetan medicine, cosmology and Buddhism. New projects explores access to heath, healing and medicines in high mountain areas in the Himalayas, where biomedical health services are only partially available. Currently, Fjeld leads the RCN funded project From Asia to Africa: Antibiotic trajectory across the Indian Ocean (SAMKUL, 2020-2025). This project brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, combining methods and perspectives from the humanities, social sciences and medicine to investigate how active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and generic antibiotics are produced, regulated and exported from China and India to Africa, and particularly Tanzania. Fjeld is particularly interested in anthropological perpectives on pharmaceuticals on the one hand, and China as a global health actor, on the other hand. Moreover, Fjeld is a part of the RCN funded EATWELL, an interdisciplinary research project that examines food systems in Bhutan in their entanglements with culture, society, environment, health, and nutrition (FRIPRO, 2021-2026).
 
Fjeld coordinates Group for Engaged Community Medicine, an interdisciplinary group that develops action-research projects in close collaboration between researchers, users and service providers. The group's main focus is on migration, and in particular health and access to health services for transmigrants in Oslo. 

 

Regional expertise: Tibet, Nepal, Himalaya, China, Norway

 

Teaching

Course (co-)leader: 

Lecturing: 

Background

Fjeld holds a doctoral degree from the Department of Social Anthropology (2007) with the dissertation 'The Rise of the Polyandrous House: Marriage, Kinship and Social Mobility in Rural Tsang, Tibet.' From 2007-2012 she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and senior researcher at the Section for Medical Anthropology and Medical History at the Institute for Health and Society (UiO), where she worked with Tibetan medicine, the ongoing health reforms in China, HIV and reproduction in Malawi, and biotechnology in Norway. She was also a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Positions held

  • Chair of Board, Center for Development and the Environment (SUM), UiO 

 

 

 

Tags: Medical Anthropology, Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, China, India, Norway

Publications

  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Vasstveit, Inger K. (2023). Amulets as Infrastructure: Enabling the Ordinary for Children in Mugum, Western Nepal. Himalaya. ISSN 1935-2212. 43(1), p. 20–41. doi: 10.2218/himalaya.2023.8969.
  • Aukrust, Camilla Grøver; Patrick, Kamalo; Finyiza, Gertrude; Mula, Chimwemwe; Chapweteka, Blessings A. & Fjeld, Heidi E [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). ‘It is the child with the big head’–Primary healthcare providers’ perceptions of paediatric hydrocephalus in Blantyre, Malawi: A qualitative study. Global Public Health. ISSN 1744-1692. 18(1). doi: 10.1080/17441692.2023.2276242.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Ruud, Sven Eirik & Dahl, Cecilie (2023). Use of emergency primary care among pregnant undocumented migrants over ten years: an observational study from Oslo, Norway. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. ISSN 0281-3432. 41(3), p. 317–325. doi: 10.1080/02813432.2023.2237074. Full text in Research Archive
  • Ghandour Daoud, Rula; Hammoudeh, Weeam; Stigum, Hein; Giacaman, Rita; Fjeld, Heidi E & Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd (2023). Menstrual characteristics and dysmenorrhea among Palestinian adolescent refugee camp dwellers in the West Bank and Jordan: a cross-sectional study. Archives of Public Health. ISSN 0778-7367. 81. doi: 10.1186/s13690-023-01059-6.
  • Aukrust, Camilla Grøver; Paulsen, Anne Henriette; Uche, Enoch Ogbonnaya; Kamalo, Patrick Dongosolo; Sandven, Irene & Fjeld, Heidi E [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). Aetiology and diagnostics of paediatric hydrocephalus across Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Global Health. ISSN 2572-116X. 10(12), p. e1793–e1806. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00430-2. Full text in Research Archive
  • Tidwell, Tawni L.; Nianggajia, XXX & Fjeld, Heidi E (2022). Chasing dön spirits in Tibetan medical encounters: Transcultural affordances and embodied psychiatry in Amdo, Qinghai. Transcultural Psychiatry. ISSN 1363-4615. doi: 10.1177/13634615221126058.
  • Ghandor Daod, Rula; Hammoudeh, Weeam; Giacaman, Rita; Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd & Fjeld, Heidi E (2022). Coming of age: a qualitative study of adolescent girls’ menstrual preparedness in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Jordan. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM). ISSN 2641-0397. 30(1). doi: 10.1080/26410397.2022.2111793.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Storkås, Guro & Ekrem, Marthe [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2022). Use of non-governmental maternity services and pregnancy outcomes among undocumented women: a cohort study from Norway. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. ISSN 1471-2393. 22, p. 1–13. doi: 10.1186/s12884-022-05112-0. Full text in Research Archive
  • Ghandor Daod, Rula; Massoud, Dima; Ladadwa, Reem; Hammoudeh, Weeam; Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd & Fjeld, Heidi E [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). Fieldwork opportunities and challenges in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory, and in Jordan: lessons learned from a Palestinian adolescent reproductive health cross-sectional study. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. 399. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01162-X.
  • Aukrust, Camilla Grøver; Parikh, Karishma; Smart, Luke R.; Mdala, Ibrahimu; Fjeld, Heidi E & Lubuulwa, James [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2022). Pediatric Hydrocephalus in Northwest Tanzania: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study of Clinical Characteristics and Early Surgical Outcomes from the Bugando Medical Centre. World Neurosurgery. ISSN 1878-8750. 161, p. e339–e346. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2022.02.003.
  • Katenga-Kaunda, Lilián Ziyenda; Iversen, Per Ole; Kamudoni, Penjani Rhoda; Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd & Fjeld, Heidi E (2022). Food-based nutrition counselling and education intervention for improved diets of pregnant women in rural Malawi: A qualitative study of factors influencing dietary behaviour change. Public Health Nutrition (PHN). ISSN 1368-9800. doi: 10.1017/S1368980022000593. Full text in Research Archive
  • Fjeld, Heidi E; Grude, Sine; Spjeldnæs, Amanda Hylland; Patel, Davina Kaur; Lie, Anne Helene Kveim & Bjerke, Lise (2021). Fra Asia til Afrika: antibiotikas reiser over det indiske havet. Michael. ISSN 1893-9651. 18.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2021). Relations as potential: Pragmatism and flexibility in Tibetan kinship. Inner Asia. ISSN 1464-8172. 23(1), p. 103–130. doi: 10.1163/22105018-12340164.
  • Katenga-Kaunda, Lillian Ziyenda; Kamudoni, Penjani Rhoda; Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd; Fjeld, Heidi E; Mdala, Ibrahimu & Shi, Zumin [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2021). Enhancing nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity among rural pregnant women in Malawi: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. ISSN 1471-2393. 21. doi: 10.1186/s12884-021-04117-5. Full text in Research Archive
  • Holmes, Seth; Castaneda, Ernesto; Geeraert, Jeremy; Castaneda, Heide; Probst, Ursula & Zeldes, Nina [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Deservingness: migration and health in social context . BMJ Global Health. ISSN 2059-7908. ;6:e005107.. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005107.
  • Katenga-Kaunda, Lillian Ziyenda; Iversen, Per Ole; Holmboe-Ottesen, Gerd; Fjeld, Heidi E; Mdala, Ibrahimu & Kamudoni, Penjani Rhoda (2020). Dietary intake and processes of behaviour change in a nutrition education intervention for pregnant women in rural Malawi: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. Public Health Nutrition (PHN). ISSN 1368-9800. 23(13), p. 2345–2354. doi: 10.1017/s1368980020000294. Full text in Research Archive
  • Ciren, Baizhen & Fjeld, Heidi E (2020). Pragmatics of everyday life: A qualitative study of induced abortion among Tibetan women in Lhasa. Health Care for Women International. ISSN 0739-9332. doi: 10.1080/07399332.2019.1640702.
  • Nianggajia, XXX & Fjeld, Heidi E (2017). In search of trust and efficacy: Tibetan Medicine in Rebgong, Qinghai, China. Medicine Anthropology Theory. ISSN 2405-691X. 5, p. 46–72. doi: 10.17157/mat.4.5.504.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Lindskog, Benedikte V (2017). Connectedness through separation: Human-nonhuman relations in Tibet and Mongolia. In Remme, Jon Henrik Ziegler & Sillander, Kenneth (Ed.), Human Nature and Social Life: Perspectives on Extended Sociality. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 978-1-107-17920-2. p. 68–82.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Lindskog, Benedikte V (2015). Ontological separation in the state of continuity: Exploring Tibetan and Mongolian domestic space, From Bhakti to Bon. Festschrift for Per Kværne.. The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. ISSN 978-82-7099-817-3. p. 209–224.
  • Chimphamba, Belinda & Fjeld, Heidi E (2014). In search of a face: Childbearing decisions among couples living with HIV from rural southern Malawi. African Journal of AIDS Research. ISSN 1608-5906. 13(1), p. 21–29. doi: 10.2989/16085906.2014.886603.
  • Førde, Kristin Engh & Fjeld, Heidi E (2013). “I et land langt borte … Forskning om surrogati”. Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0800-336X.
  • Gombachika, B. Chimphamba; Chirwa, Ellen; Malata, Address; Sundby, Johanne & Fjeld, Heidi E (2013). Reproductive decisions of couples living with HIV in Malawi: What can we learn for future policy and research studies? Malawi Medical Journal. ISSN 1995-7262. 25(3), p. 65–71.
  • Gombachika, Belinda; Fjeld, Heidi E; Chirwa, Ellen; Sundby, Johanne; Malata, Address & Maluwa, Alfred (2012). A Social Ecological Approach to Exploring Barriers to Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Services among Couples Living with HIV in Southern Malawi. ISRN Public Health. ISSN 2090-8008. doi: 10.5402/2012/825459.
  • Gombachika, Belinda; Chirwa, Ellen; Sundby, Johanne; Malata, Address; Maluwa, Alfred & Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Marriage Partner Selection by Heterosexual Couples Living with HIV from Rural Southern Malawi. Journal of AIDS and Clinical Research. ISSN 2155-6113. doi: 10.4172/2155-6133.
  • Sagli, Gry; Zhang, JInming; Ingstad, Benedicte & Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Poverty and disabled households in the People’s Republic of China: experiences with a new rural health insurance scheme. Disability & Society. ISSN 0968-7599. 28(2), p. 218–231. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2012.699281.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Sagli, Gry (2011). Disability, poverty and health care: Changes in the canji (‘disability’) policies in the history of the People’s Republic of China. In Eide, Arne Henning & Ingstad, Benedicte (Ed.), Disability and poverty. A global challenge. Policy Press. ISSN 978-1-84742-885-1. p. 31–54. doi: 10.1332/policypress/9781847428851.003.0003.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Hofer, Theresia (2011). Women and Gender in Tibetan medicine. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity. ISSN 1573-420X. 6(2), p. 175–216. doi: 10.1163/15734218-12341234.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2010). Åpne og lukkede relasjoner sosialitet på tvers av urenhetsforestillinger på landsbygda i Tibet. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285. 21(1), p. 4–18.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2008). Pollution and Social Networks in Contemporary Rural Tibet. In Barnett, Robert & Schwartz, Ronald (Ed.), Tibetan Modernities. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 978-90-04-15522-0. p. 113–138.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2008). When Brothers Separate: Conflict and Mediation within Polyandrous Houses in Central Tibet. In Huber, Toni & Pirie, Fernanda (Ed.), Conflict and Social Order in Tibet and Inner Asia. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 978-90-04-15817-7. p. 241–262.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2007). Fra hushold til Hus: om betydningen av jord for analysen av polyandri i Tibet. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285. p. 266–277.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2007). Fra hushold til hus. Om betydnignen av jord for analysen av polyandri i Tibet. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285. 18(3-4), p. 266–279.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2001). Kampen om et kloster. Dyade. ISSN 0332-5792.

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  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2022). The Return of Polyandry. Kinship and Marriage in Central Tibet. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-80073-864-5. 232 p.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2005). Commoners and Nobles. Hereditary Divisions in Tibet. NIAS Press. ISBN 87-91114-17-9. 170 p.

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  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil Krarup; Valberg, Morten & Dahl, Cecilie (2023). Perinatal mortality among pregnant undocumented migrants in Norway 1999-2020: a register-based population study.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Ruud, Sven Eirik & Dahl, Cecilie (2023). Use of emergency health care services by pregnant undocumented migrants over a ten-year period in Oslo, Norway.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Ruud, Sven Eirik & Dahl, Cecilie (2022). Use of an emergency primary clinic in Oslo by pregnant undocumented migrants compared to pregnant residents of Norway.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Ruud, Sven Eirik & Dahl, Cecilie (2022). Utilization of an emergency primary care clinic in Oslo by pregnant undocumented migrants compared to pregnant residents of Norway.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Fjeld, Heidi; Sørbye, Ingvil; Storkås, Guro & Ekrem, Marthe [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2022). Use of non-governmental maternity services and pregnancy outcomes among undocumented women: a cohort study from Norway.
  • Eick, Frode; Vallersnes, Odd Martin; Sørbye, Ingvil; Ebbing, Cathrine; Storkås, Guro & Ekrem, Marthe [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2022). Pregnant undocumented women’s use of two humanitarian clinics between 2009-2020 and their maternal outcomes in Norway: A cohort study.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2015). The Rise of the Polyandrous House: Reforms and Relatedness in a Central Tibetan Village.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2015). Performing the dirty work: the organisation of labour among menrig in Lhasa and rural Tsang.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2015). Gender models and gender practices: Representation of women in the early 20th century Tibetan medical history .
  • Lindskog, Benedikte V & Fjeld, Heidi E (2015). Ontological separation in a state of continuity: Exploring Tibetan and Mongolian domestic space, From Bhakti to Bon. Festschrift for Per Kværne.. The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. ISSN 978-82-7099-817-3. p. 209–225.
  • Sagli, Gry; Wang, Wei; Ingstad, Benedicte; Fjeld, Heidi E & Zhang, JInming (2014). 西方学者眼中的中国新农合 (The New Rural Health Insurance in China from the Perspective of Western Scholars). 中国残疾人 (Zhongguo canjiren) Disability in China. p. 64–66.
  • Lindskog, Benedikte V & Fjeld, Heidi E (2013). The principle of separation: Socio-ritual houses in Tibet and Mongolia.
  • Sagli, Gry; Wang, Wei; Ingstad, Benedicte; Fjeld, Heidi E & Zhang, Jingming (2013). 西方学者眼中的中国贫困与残疾人家庭 -记中國农村新医疗保险之实现 (The relation between Poverty and Disabled Households in China from the Viewpoint of Western Scholars – Notes on the Implementation of the New Medical Insurance in Rural China) . 有人 (You Ren Magazine). 1(4), p. 48–50.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Commercialization of reproduction: The case of transnational surrogacy.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Sustaining life for others: Surrogate mothers in India.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Poor or Disabled? Negotiating status in rural Qinghai,China.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2012). Polyandry in contemporary Tibet: The inherent flexibility of marriage in shifting socio-political contexts.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Hofer, Theresia (2011). Women, gender and Tibetan medicine.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2011). From nationality to ethnicity: changing minzu policies in People’s Republic of China.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2011). Gifts and returns: Adoption and inter-house relations in Central Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E & Sagli, Gry (2011). Poverty, disability and access to health care: a qualitative study from rural China.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2010). Kina. Folket. Historien. Politikken. Kulturen. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2010). Polyandry and the House: creations of relatedness in post-1980 rural Tsang.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2010). Aspects of the body: disability and cultural differences.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2009). Struggling to conceive: dealing with infertility in Lhasa.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2009). Fra vitenskap til New Age? Religiøse endringsprosesser innen tibetansk medisin.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2007). Flermanneri blomstrer på landsbygda i Tibet. [Newspaper]. NTB, Aftenposten Aften, Nrk nett.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2005). Domestic conflicts and Social order: Dealing with divorce in post-Mao rural Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2004). Ekteskapsmønstre og Konfliktlinjer: Ko-partneskap i polyandriske ekteskap i rurale Tibet.
  • Sommerfelt, Tone & Fjeld, Heidi E (2004). Former for sosial forankring (arbeidsgruppe).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2004). Fra hushold til Hus: om betydningen av jord i analysen av polyandri i Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2003). Polyandri i Tibet. [Radio]. Nrk P2, Verdt og vite.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2003). Modernisation and the revitalisation of tradition in rural Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2003). Changing perceptions of hereditary rank - rigs btsog pa in rural Tsang.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2002). Knowledge, Body and Value A study of hereditary social division in rural Central -Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2002). Antropologi og språk.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2001). Utvikling eller utnytting? Åpningen av Kinas vestre regioner. Verdens tak : organ for den Norske Tibetkomitë. ISSN 0804-4015. 12(2).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2001). Kunnskap, Kropp og Personkonstruksjon i Tibet.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2000). En flukt for Tibet. Dagbladet. ISSN 0805-3766.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2000). Befolkningspolitikk i Kina og Tibet. Verdens tak : organ for den Norske Tibetkomitë. ISSN 0804-4015. 11(1).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2000). Commoners and Nobles: The Persistence of Hereditary Social Divisions in Lhasa under Communist Rule.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1999). Prisoners of Shangri-la. Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Lopez). Journal of Peace Research. ISSN 0022-3433. 36(3), p. 378–379.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1999). Education in Tibet. Policy and Practice Since 1950 (Bass). Journal of Peace Research. ISSN 0022-3433. 36(6).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1999). The Dragon in the Land of Snows. A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 (Shakya). Journal of Peace Research. ISSN 0022-3433. 36(6).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1999). Språkkamp i Tibet. Motmæle. ISSN 0809-2109. 15(2).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1997). Arne Næss: en militant ikke-volds Gandhist. Verdens tak : organ for den Norske Tibetkomitë. ISSN 0804-4015. 8(2).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1997). Skolesystemet i Lhasa: utfordringer i dagens Tibet. Verdens tak : organ for den Norske Tibetkomitë. ISSN 0804-4015. 8(1).
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (2007). The Rise of the Polyandous House: Marriage, Kinship and Social Mobility in Rural Tsang, Tibet. Unipub forlag.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1999). Commoners and Nobles: The persistence of hereditary social divisions in Lhasa under communist rule. Sosialantropologisk institutt.
  • Fjeld, Heidi E (1998). Representing the Past: Some Perspectives on Change and Continuity in the Former Tibetan Nobility in Lhasa. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

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Published Apr. 13, 2011 2:45 PM - Last modified Oct. 30, 2023 9:24 AM