Profile
Biography
• PhD Sociology, The University of Delhi
• M.Phil Sociology, The University of Delhi
• MA Sociology, The University of Delhi
I am a medical anthropologist and my ethnographic journey dates back to 1985-90, exploring the interface between medicine and culture in Kashmir. After completing my doctorate from the University of Delhi, I taught at the University of Western Australia and, following a carrier break, worked at the University of Leeds and then Health Sciences at York.
My research and teaching have previously centred around inequalities and health, race, ethnicity, citizenship and social policy; family, kinship, gender and caring; and ethnographic and biographical methods. Having worked extensively with minority ethnic groups (largely South Asians) living in the UK, my interest has shifted to the field of genetics, genomics and embodiment of risk, reproductive technologies and global governance of health.
Current Grant
Addressing low uptake of COVID vaccination among Gypsy and Traveller communities: a community exchange approach (41, 428, August 2022- July 2023) UoY, priming fund, with K. Atkin, (PI), C. Hunter and M. Furgalska (Law School) and V. Cannon (York Travellers Trust).
This small ethnographic project explores notions of risk and decisions related to health and COVID vaccination among the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in and around York. Using a community engagement model of knowledge production and sharing, we hope to facilitate ways of challenging long standing, institutionalised forms of discriminatory practices and racism faced by communities literally living at the margins of the state.
External activities
Memberships
I am on the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Sociology (medical sociology) and previously was an editor for Ethnicity and Health (Routledge) 2009 - 2015.
Lifetime patron, National Thalassemia Welfare Society, Delhi.
Scientific Advisor, Sickle Cell Society India, Nagpur.
Research
Projects
Precarious lives, historical trauma and community health: claims to citizenship by people of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller heritages in the UK (Morrell Trust and URP £15,949.00)
Team (Lead by UoY and York Travellers Trust):
- Sangeeta Chattoo, Karl Atkin, Carolyn Hunter (Law School)
- Violet Cannon (York Travellers Trust)
Background
Records of state attempts at cultural erasure, legal exclusion and extermination of people of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma (GTR, used here for heuristic purposes) heritages run through more than 500 years of British and European history. GTR communities represent one of the most disadvantaged minority ethnic groups in the UK, and the need to improve their health outcomes has been recognised by the previous government. This collaborative project draws on the skills, expertise and experiences of a community of practitioners representing diverse backgrounds (GTR community members/ groups, anthropology, history, housing, law, midwifery, sociology, museums).
Aims and objectives
We are writing a three-year grant (ESRC), in collaboration with our academic and non-academic collaborators (York Travellers Trust; University of East Anglia; Oxford Brookes University; University of Warwick; Dundee University and University of Nottingham).
Using interdisciplinary and ethnographic methods (such as, archives, case-law, storytelling, music, art and craft, audio/video recordings and photovoice journals), our main aims are to:
- Analyse how memories and experiences of racism, exclusion, marginalisation relate to intergenerational mental and physical health and wellbeing for people of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma (GTR) heritages, living across England and Scotland.
- Translate the findings into developing safe spaces, community resources and tools for better engaging with and training of health and social care practitioners.
- Create an alternate archive, owned and produced by the local community participants, for the future, challenging their exclusion and erasure from the official history of state and citizenship of Britain.
- Establish an international, interdisciplinary Centre for GTR studies at the UoY.
Previous projects
-
Addressing low uptake of COVID vaccination among Gypsy and Traveller communities: a community exchange approach (41, 428, August 2022-July 2023) UoY, priming fund, with K. Atkin, (PI), C. Hunter and M. Furgalska (Law School) and V. Cannon (York Travellers Trust).
This small ethnographic project explores notions of risk and decisions related to health and COVID vaccination among the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in and around York. Using a community engagement model of knowledge production and sharing, we hope to facilitate ways of challenging long-standing, institutionalised forms of discriminatory practices and racism faced by communities literally living at the margins of the state.
- ‘Why do we need social scientists to help us understand the real-life experiences of genetic disorders?’(develop an educational resource for Secondary school students and teachers, supporting social mobility), with K Atkin, ESRC/IAA and Sociology DRC (Jan-July 2022, £7699).
- A ‘minimally safe-care practice’ toolkit for long term conditions: improvising protocols in poorly resourced, rural healthcare settings in India, with Karl Atkin, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, £19,207 (July 2021-July 2022).
- ‘Vital Circulations’, White Rose Collaboration Fund, (March 2021–December 2022, £10,970), with N. Brown (UoY), J Kim (University of Leeds) and R. Williams, (University of Sheffield).
- 'Inherited blood disorders, globalisation and the promise of genomics: an Indian case-study'. One of the overarching themes being pursed here relates to the wider social and political ramifications of a mapping of new technologies of genetic risk and prevention (genomics) onto older models and metaphors of communicable disease (contagion and spread); and how these might impact (both positively and negatively) on the lives of politically and socio-economically marginalised communities living at the margins of the state.
ESRC, £514,981 (2016-2019). Principle Investigator with internal Co-Investigator Professor Karl Atkin. External Co-Investigators: Professor Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University; Professor Maya Unnithan, University of Sussex; Professor Ranendra Das, Institute of Socio-Economic Research on Development and Democracy (ISERDD), Delhi.
- 'Building Interdisciplinary Analysis and Capacity: the UoYSTS Network'. University of York Research Priming Fund, £4,162, March-July 2016. Co-Investigator with Andrew Webster, Dept. of Sociology; Chris Renwick, Department of History; and others.
