I am an Associate Professor and the Project Leader of the Research Council of Norway-funded project "Pandemic Funds, Public Goods for Health, and the Future of Global Health Financing (PANDFUND)". I serve on the boards of the Norwegian Research School in Global Health for Sustainable Futures and the Nordic Africa Network, and am UiO co-partner in the Africa-Europe Cluster of Excellence on Preparedness and Response to Pandemics and Shocks by ARUA and the Guild.
Research
I am an anthropologist whose research examines how health, care, and social protection are financed, organized, and experienced across African contexts, particularly Eastern Africa. Bringing medical, economic and historical anthropology into dialogue with global and public health, my work investigates health systems and financing; formal and informal economies of care and social welfare; gender, kinship, and social solidarity. I also examine the enduring social and political consequences of epidemics and pandemics, alongside the evolving roles of digital technologies, philanthropy, and humanitarianism.
My current research projects examine global health financing interventions for pandemic PPR (prevention, preparedness and response), epidemic afterlives, and philanthropy. The projects focus on Kenya, Ethiopia, India, and Norway.
I am writing my first book titled Economies of Care: Woman-headed households, Cash Transfers and Matrilineal Relations in Kenya South Coast' . The book is an ethnographic account of a Kenya government social assistance grant (cash transfer scheme) and its impact on care and gender relations in the context of HIV/AIDS, matrilineal kinship, and Islam in southern coastal Kenya. The book examines care at various scales, from state-directed programs to household economies, highlighting the role of women´s solidarity and kinship in the social, economic, political and religious dimensions of care in female-headed households. The book draws from my doctoral research that has been awarded the prestigious Audrey Richards Prize by the African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) and the Royal Anthropological Institute's Sutasoma Award.
My research is also part of the ERC-funded project "Universal Health Coverage and the Public Good in Africa: An Anthropological Study", led by Ruth Prince, the "Epidemics and African Health Systems: Covid-19 in Kenya", funded by the Research Council of Norway, and Mega Philanthropy and Democratic Governance (PHILOS), funded by UiO:Democracy.
I have previously worked with various local and international organizations in applied and policy work on health and poverty interventions, HIV/AIDS, and social and financial protection.
From 2023, I convene the Medical Anthropology and History seminars at the Institute of Health and Society, UiO.
Background
Before my current role, I held positions at the University of Oslo as a researcher, Department of Social Anthropology (2021-2023) and postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Health and Society (2018-2021).
I hold a PhD in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), MPhil in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), and BA in Anthropology and Information Technology (Maseno University).
Teaching
INTHE4113 – Introduction to Medical Anthropology
INTHE4117 Global Epidemics
INTHE4019 Fundamentals of International Community Health
HELSEF4410 Introduction to Qualitative Methods
INTHE4022 Advanced Module in Qualitative Methods
MED5600 Medical Studies Module 6
MED5700 Medical Studies Module 7
Publications
(Forthcoming). `Caring futures: solidarity networks, relational indebtedness, and temporalities of care in Kenya’s digital era´, Africa (2026), 3100, 1–20 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972026102320
2026. '“Corona is over”: temporality and the material afterlives of the covid-19 pandemic in Kenya' With Geissler Wenzel and Ruth Prince. Medical Anthropology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2026.2710415
2025. 'Challenges faced by community health volunteers in offering sexual and reproductive health care services to young women during the Covid-19 pandemic in Khwisero and Nairobi in Kenya'. With Mariam F. Yusuf, Washington Onyango-Ouma and Cynthia Wangamati. Frontiers in Reproductive Health,6:1491093. https://doi.org/10.3389/frph.2024.1491093
2024. 'Schools of public health as a cornerstone for pandemic preparedness and response: the Africa COVID-19 experience'. With Ndejjo, Rawlance, et al. Globalization and Health 20(1): 82-100. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-024-01087-z
2023. 'The 'Hustler' Fund: Kenya's Approach to National Transformation', African Arguments, https://africanarguments.org/2023/01/the-hustler-fund-kenyas-approach-to-national-transformation/
2023. 'Health for All? Pasts, Presents and Futures of Aspirations for Universal Healthcare'. With Ruth Prince and Janina Kehr. Social Science and Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115660
2022. 'A new universalism? Universal health coverage and debates about rights, solidarity and inequality in Kenya'. With Ruth Prince. Social Science and Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115258
2022. Simukai Chigudu, The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, crisis and citizenship in Zimbabwe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Africa, 92 (3): 386-387. doi:10.1017/S0001972022000146 (Book Review)
2020. 'Health Insurance for the poor: Insights from the Kenyan Coast'. Somatosphere. http://somatosphere.net/2020/health-insurance-poor-kenya.html/
2018. 'Winning women's hearts: women, patriarchy and electoral politics in Kenya's South Coast' in Nanjala Nyabola and Marie-Emanuelle Pommerolle (eds) Where women are: gender & the 2017 Kenyan elections. Nairobi: Twaweza Communications, pp.152-189
2017. 'Digo women, patriarchy and elections in the Kenya South Coast'. Gender Forum, Heinrich Böll Stiftung. https://ke.boell.org/en/2017/08/29/digo-women-patriarchy-and-elections-kenya-south-coast
Accepted
'Networks of Care, Solidarity and Responsibility: Future making and transformation in Africa', Special issue.
Books
Economies of Care: Woman-headed Households, Cash Transfers and Matrilineal Relations in Kenya's South Coast. (in preparation)
Editorial Work
2023. 'Health for All? Pasts, Presents and Futures of Aspirations for Universal Healthcare'. (With Kehr, J. and Prince, RJ.). Special Issue by Social Science and Medicine.