Find out more about my research on Population Politics and Development, the Politics of Access to Anti-Retrovirals, Celebrity and North-South Relations, Batman Saves Congo, and Commodifying Compassion

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Current Research

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Currently I lead the research projects ‘Commodifying Compassion: Implications of Turning People into Marketable Things' and Everyday Humanitarianism in Tanzania. Commodifying Compassion (a four year FSE fully-funded program until 2022) with impact as part of the project design. This work links ethical consumption with everyday humanitarianism and will use vertically integrated, systematic ethnographies of corporations, NGOs and recipients of aid in Africa to explore dynamics of the commodification of compassion in three different contexts where humanitarianism has been dominated by the state (Denmark), church (Italy) and market (US). The objective of Commodifying Compassion is to understand how ‘helping’ has become a marketable commodity and how this impacts humanitarianism both symbolically and materially.

 

Everyday Humanitarianism in Tanzania (‘EveryHumanTZ’). EveryHumanTZ will measure attitudes and map practices of everyday humanitarianism by wealthy philanthropists, middle class contributors and friendly neighbours in contexts of acute and protracted crisis situations across Tanzania.

 

Research and Teaching Management Experience:

 

• Interdisciplinary scholar publishing monographs, edited books, chapters and journal articles in development studies, political science, African studies, human rights, communications, political economy, and global health journals.

• Deep contextual understanding of developing economies and societies: I have spent a total of 51 months doing fieldwork in Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Democratic Republic of Congo), and have also been involved in research capacity building partnerships for university education between Denmark and Tanzania.

 

I have been the research leader on the following projects:

 

• Danish Social Science Research Council 2016-2020) Commodifying Compassion: Implications of turning people and humanitarian causes into marketable things.  (lead PI with 2 postdocs)

 

• Roskilde University Research Priority Area (2012-2015) and Copenhagen Business School Sustainability Platform, Research Network on Celebrity and North-South Relations http://celebnorthsouth.wordpress.com/  (plus 2 post-doc grants independently funded)

 

• Danish NGO Forum (2013) Finding Frames Denmark: pilot research project. (with a co-I and research assistant)

 

• Danish Development Research Council (Forskningsrådet for Udviklingsforskning) (2004-2010) The Politics of Access to Anti-Retrovirals in the Treatment of African AIDS.