University of Auckland

Faculty Member, Anthropology

Senior Lecturer

About

My primary research interests are the politics of health and the impact of political violence on people's everyday lives, psychological states, and perceptions of national identity. Much of my work over the last ten years has focused on political violence, the body, and embodied practices of citizenship amongst Indo-Fijians in Fiji, as detailed in my book on the 2000 Fiji coup, State of Suffering: Political Violence and Community Survival in Fiji (2008).

I also have a long standing interest in post-socialist societies in Eastern and Central Europe. Currently I am undertaking two research projects in the Czech Republic. The first project focuses on citizenship, political violence, history and memory. The second project examines the politics of children’s health, particularly asthma and related respiratory conditions, in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. Both of these projects build on my previous work on political change and the domestic and working lives of Czech women, as described in my book Young Women of Prague (1998, co-authored with sociologist Alena Heitlinger) and in the edited volume, Bodies of Bread and Butter (1993).

In addition to my research in Fiji and the Czech Republic, I am currently co-editing a book, Senses and Citizenships, on the intersections between sensory experiences and national identity in a variety of political contexts.