Sanjana Kumari
| Biography | My PhD research explores how social injustices shape experiences of mental illness and distress among those suffering from life-limiting illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and neurological disorders. The ethnographic research focuses on the experiences of patients and their caregivers in an urban informal-settlement in India. The findings will help advance understandings of the intersections of medical and social suffering. It will offer new insights to enhance palliative care in marginalized communities in India and beyond. I have been awarded a ESRC NINE DTP scholarship to pursue my PhD in Anthropology (2024-2028). My M.Phil training in Development Practice entailed intensive qualitative research on aging and dying in forest-dwelling communities in India. The academic training has sensitized me to how health and well-being are linked to individual, relational, local, and global level injustices. The five years before starting my PhD, I worked as a qualitative researcher with multiple national and international organizations in India. I addressed a wide range of research domains such as, care economies, socio-economic development and mental health of women in the informal economy, sexual and reproductive health, and neglected tropical diseases. I was involved in leading qualitative research design, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of findings for health systems strengthening. My key responsibilities also entailed project management, grant writing and donor engagement, and strategizing for organizational growth. |
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| Research Interests | Medical anthropology Transcultural psychiatry Anthropology of care Anthropology and global health Interdisciplinary research on bodily and emotional life Ethnographic methods |