In her PhD research, Tanja is looking into care provision to the elderly in Indian transnational families. Particularly, she is exploring how everyday information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to provide care to elderly parents by their children living and working abroad as nurses. What happens to care for the parents when their children migrate? More precisely, how are health crisis such as stroke and accidents dealt with? And how can ICTs like (mobile) phone and Skype collapse the distance between family members? Tanja is trying to answer these and other related questions by carrying out extensive fieldwork in Kerala, India, as well as by following transnational families of Kerala nurses around the world.

Tanja received her PhD fellowship through the TransGlobalHealth program, which is a part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate program. Her promotor at UvA is Prof. Dr. Jeannette Pols and her co-supervisor is Dr. Koen Peeters from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.

For several years, most of Tanja's research interests have been related to telemedicine and e-health, online health forums and the impact of the Internet on the relationship between patients and health practitioners. 

Previously, Tanja conducted fieldwork in rural Uttarakhand, North India, where she researched disordered eating in times of socioeconomic and personal development. This fieldwork formed the basis of her Master's thesis at the Health and Society in South Asia program (MAHASSA) which she completed at Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2012. 

Tanja obtained her B.A. in Anthropology from Athabasca University, Canada. She also has a B.A. in translation (English, French, Slovenian), which she received from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and has worked as a translator, editor and publisher.

Keywords

Medical anthropology; STS; care; global care chains; e-health, m-health and telemedicine; online communication; transnational social space; gender; ageing; modernity and development.

• TransGlobalHealth, Erasmus Mundus Program, Educational, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission, PhD Grant (3 years), 2013;

• SMA Travel Student Award to attend the AAA Annual Meeting, 2013;

• NWO Open Access Grant for the organization of a round table on open access at the SMA-EASA conference, 2013;
• Medical Anthropology Young Scholars (MAYS) at EASA, Travel Stipend for SMA-EASA conference in Tarragona, Spain, 2013;
• Athabasca University Award in Anthropology, 2009;
• Athabasca University Honours List, 2009;
• Athabasca Travel Grant to attend the AAA Annual Meeting, 2009;
• Athabasca University Undergraduate Outstanding Achievement Scholarship, 2008-2009;
• Athabasca University Academic Leadership Scholarship, 2007.

• No ancillary activities