About me
I am an anthropologist working at the intersection of migration, healthcare, and emerging biotechnologies, using ethnography to make visible the human experiences, values, and forms of collaboration that shape complex systems. I’m passionate about bridging disciplines and professions to generate insights that are both theoretically grounded and practically meaningful.
Originally British-Italian by birth and later a naturalized Senegalese citizen, I’ve lived and worked across Europe, Africa, and Asia. These movements have shaped my deep curiosity about how people navigate worlds that are not their own and how they build relationships across difference. Since 2009, I have been based in the Netherlands.
Outside academia, I’m an active Instagram user, and I love swimming, biking, listening to live music, and connecting with people from many different walks of life. I am also a mother of two.
Originally British-Italian by birth and later a naturalized Senegalese citizen, I’ve lived and worked across Europe, Africa, and Asia. These movements have shaped my deep curiosity about how people navigate worlds that are not their own and how they build relationships across difference. Since 2009, I have been based in the Netherlands.
Outside academia, I’m an active Instagram user, and I love swimming, biking, listening to live music, and connecting with people from many different walks of life. I am also a mother of two.
What I do
Ethnography for Understanding and Change
Ethnography is my core research method. It enables me to uncover perspectives that are often overlooked, especially in fields dominated by technical, clinical, or policy metrics. I believe anthropology should be both theoretically sound and useful to the people and organizations I collaborate with.
Areas of Expertise
Ethnography is my core research method. It enables me to uncover perspectives that are often overlooked, especially in fields dominated by technical, clinical, or policy metrics. I believe anthropology should be both theoretically sound and useful to the people and organizations I collaborate with.
Areas of Expertise
- Healthcare & Interdisciplinary Collaboration
I study the invisible dynamics shaping teamwork in healthcare. Among biomedical scientists and clinicians in Dutch university hospitals, or among midwives, I research how responsibilities are negotiated, how knowledge circulates, and how values inform everyday decisions. Ethnography helps capture dimensions of care that are hard to quantify yet essential to designing more resilient and equitable health systems. - Migration, Humanitarianism & Development
For many years, I conducted ethnographic work on migration governance, humanitarian aid, and migrant-led development, collaborating closely with international organizations, NGOs, and government institutions. I bring extensive experience at the crossroads of research and practice. - Transnational Lives & Mobility
My earlier work explored the multiple identities, attachments, and political engagements of migrants, particularly among Senegalese communities connected to Italy and abroad.
Why collaboration matters to me
Whether working with clinicians, biomedical researchers, policymakers, or NGOs, I see collaboration as a powerful way to surface diverse forms of expertise and to co-create solutions that are contextually grounded and socially just. Across my projects, I focus on how evidence is defined, how decisions are made, and how people work together in settings shaped by uncertainty and inequity.
Professional journey
I have held academic positions in Italy (Milan‑Bicocca), Senegal (IFAN), the UK (LSE and Goldsmiths), and the Netherlands (ISS/Erasmus, VU Amsterdam). Prior to academia, I worked in international development across Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, mainly in healthcare project management.
Let's connect
I enjoy working with people from different scientific and professional backgrounds, whether to improve healthcare practice, shape migration policy, or explore the social dimensions of new biotechnologies. If you'd like to know more or discuss a potential collaboration, please get in touch!