Health-E: The Edinburgh Health Blog

If you would like to include your project on our blog, please pitch your idea: health-e@ed.ac.uk

20/10/2025

EdCMA Newsletter No.3

As the light turns golden over George Square, we’re easing into our academic year, grateful for the crisp air, the shifting leaves, and the familiar sense of renewal that comes each autumn. It’s been a wonderful year at the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology (EdCMA), and we’re excited for what’s to come in 2025/26.

04/02/2025

EdCMA Newsletter No.2

Dear EdCMA Community

Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful break and are ready for another exciting semester. With the new year upon us, we’re thrilled to kick off this spring with a packed calendar of events, new faces, and important updates to keep you in the loop. As always, we’re here to foster a vibrant and engaged community, and we can’t wait to share what’s coming up!

18/11/2024

Intercalating at SPS: a Medical student’s guide to the social sciences

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of intercalation, you perhaps wouldn’t expect our doctors of the future to be spending a year of their degree studying social sciences. But intercalating is a valuable experience, and was particularly so for Priyanka, our blog writer who spent her year away from Medicine with SPS.

05/11/2024

Welcome to the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology’s New Newsletter!

We’re excited to launch this little newsletter as a way to keep our vibrant community up-to-date on all the exciting things happening here at the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology (EdCMA). With so much going on, we want to ensure you’re always in the loop, whether you're currently in Edinburgh or based somewhere else in the world. Our community has been growing faster than ever, and it seems like there's something happening every week—talks, workshops, social events, and more!

Girl whose right hand is missing holds up a drawing of herself entitled 'This is me' and her name, Hope, is visible on the side of the paper

29/07/2022

“For good mental health people need a (safe) place to go”. The mental health challenges of Somali and Congolese refugees in Johannesburg, South Africa

Dr Rebecca Walker describes the research collaboration between the African Centre for Migration and Society at University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Edinburgh

Arm reaching out of the ocean up to the sky

23/07/2022

Therapeutic efficacy: hegemony and pluralism. An anthropological perspective

PhD candidate Emanuela Nadia Borghi (University of St Andrews) discusses migrant survivors of gender-based violence in Italy and mental health, in a summary of her presentation at the EdCMA Pluralising Global Mental Health conference

A white horse approaches a young woman in the autumn sunlight

14/07/2022

Equine-assisted services: A valuable but misunderstood resource for child and adolescent mental health

Madison Charlton describes her Masters of Science research on equine-assisted services as a response to the Global Mental Health crisis among adults and children

11/07/2022

Away from Psychiatrization: Towards Socio-Ecological Wellbeing in the Community

Gillian Batty describes how her professional trajectory in Pyschology is informing her PhD on Global Mental Health

SoMA Poster created by Gabriele Zukauskaite

06/07/2022

Annual SoMA Symposium 2022

Michelle Potiaumpai reports on the Annual SoMA Symposium organised by the Students of Medical Anthropology group within EdCMA

09/06/2022

Pregnancy, Race, and Reproductive Justice workshop

Hosted by Reproduction Edinburgh, Mars Lord and Professor Dána-Ain Davis speak about birth work, activism, and reproductive racism. A summary by Tara Pollak

A woman in a medical coat with a stethoscope around her neck is taking notes of a young girl's medical record and looks into the camera

28/05/2022

Leveraging community health work, citizenship and public authority in northern Kenya

Discussions on voluntarism in healthcare in Tanzania and Kenya with Dr Kathy Dodworth

A sink and two toilets within a prison cell

17/05/2022

Menstruation and Incarceration in U.S. State and Federal Women’s Prisons

Miriam Vishniac gives an overview of her doctoral research on the difficulties of accessing menstrual products in prisons in the U.S and the solutions people who menstruate are forced to comply with

Computer showing a Zoom call with multiple people and a mug beside the computer

25/04/2022

COVID-19 and Subjective Mental Well-Being: Changes Throughout the Crisis

Dr Amy Andrada and Dr Ugur Ozdemir discuss why mental health changed at different points during the pandemic and our talent at adaptability

Cover of Gill Haddow's book depicting a person lying in a foetal position in a circle, with giant hands reaching for the person

04/04/2022

Embodiment and Everyday Cyborgs: Technologies that alter Subjectivity

Dr Gill Haddow writes about her academic and artistic research and her new ethnographic book

Screenshot from the EdCMA Annual Lecture on Zoom showing Dr Singh's powerpoint presentation with the title of his talk

30/03/2022

Annual EdCMA Lecture: Dr Brighupati Singh

In March 2022, the EdCMA Annual Lecture was given by Dr Bhrigupati Singh entitled “What is an Ethnographic Interview? Thoughts at the Intersection of Anthropology and Psychiatry”. This is a summary of his talk and linked recording.

EDCMA