Detail

Keywords

Anthropology, Cultural; Anthropology, Medical; Circumcision, Female; Emigrants and Immigrants; Health Policy; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Reproductive Health; Sexuality; Social Behavior; Social Medicine

Research group(s)

• Unit Medical Anthropology and Global Health
  Head: Ruth Kutalek
  Research Area: Research at the Unit focuses on the socio-cultural implications and perceptions of infectious diseases (Ebola viral disease, Lassa fever, measles, yellow fever), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), nutritional anthropology (e.g. geophagy), issues of access to health care for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, mental health, representations of human bodies, human-animal-environment interactions, as well as anthropological perspectives in emergency response and humanitarian assistance.
  Members:
  Ruth Kutalek
  Elena Jirovsky-Platter

Research interests

As a medical anthropologist, researcher, and instructor at the Center for Public Health, I am passionate about promoting health equity. 

I had the lead and cooperated in interdisciplinary research projects in Austria, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Liberia, on multiple topics such as sexual and reproductive health, in particular female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), migrant health, health worker migration, health worker working conditions, as well as social aspects of infectious diseases. I conducted extensive fieldwork in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Liberia.

I graduated from the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna in 2014 and was a visiting doctoral student at the University of Toronto. Between 2007 and 2010, I was awarded the prestigious DOC-team scholarship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. I then deployed as a social scientist for Doctors without Borders (MSF; Chad) and the WHO (Ebola Response Liberia, 2015), and have been a project member at the Medical University of Vienna since 2011.

In team efforts, I received the Veronika Fialka Moser Diversity Award from the Medical University of Vienna twice.

Most recent projects:

·       FGM in Austria – a mixed methods study to analyse the situation of FGM/C in Austria, including an estimate of the number of girls and women affected and threatened by FGM/C living in Austria, and to contextualize this with qualitative data on attitudes, influencing factors and known support services from affected communities and health personnel. This should close knowledge gaps about FGM/C in Austria to improve prevention work against FGM/C and the psychosocial and medical care of affected women and girls in Austria. The study was commissioned by the Federal Chancellery, Section II Integration, Cultural Office and Ethnic Groups and carried out in cooperation with FEM Süd (2023-24). (Link: https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/dam/jcr:a8b4fa99-575c-464b-97e6-6bb253e71aca/FGMC_in_oesterreich_2024.pdf)

·       SoNAR-Global: A Global Social Sciences Network for Infectious Threats and Antimicrobial Resistance 

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Qualitative study designs (semi-structured and in-depth interviews, focus group discussion); ethnography and participant observation; community engagement; media analysis, applied social science methods; Analysis with the software atlas.ti, using different theoretical frameworks, such as critical medical anthropology, feminist and socio-political approaches 

Grants

• DOC-team (2007)
  Source of Funding: OeAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences), DOC-team
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Jirovsky, E., 2010. Views of women and men in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, on three forms of female genital modification. Reproductive Health Matters, 18(35), pp.84–93. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(10)35513-3.
2. Jirovsky-Platter, E. et al. (2024) ‘Experiences of Vegans with General Practitioners in the Austrian Health Care System: A Qualitative Study’, Nutrients, 16(3), p. 392. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16030392.
3. Zuckerhut, B. et al. (2025) ‘Content Analysis of Austrian Print and Online Newspaper Coverage of Breastfeeding Over Two Decades’, Maternal & Child Nutrition, 21(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13795.
4. Wojczewski, S. et al. (2024) ‘Vaccine hesitancy among physicians: a qualitative study with general practitioners and paediatricians in Austria and Germany’, BMJ Open, 14(1), p. e077411. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077411.
5. Jirovsky, E. et al., 2015. “Why should I have come here?” - a qualitative investigation of migration reasons and experiences of health workers from sub-Saharan Africa in Austria. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-0737-z.