Detail

Keywords

Anthropology, Cultural; Anthropology, Medical; Circumcision, Female; Emigrants and Immigrants; Health Policy; Humanities; 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

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Qualitative study designs (semi-structured and in-depth interviews, focus group discussion); ethnography and participant observation; Media Analysis, Applied Social Science Methods; Analysis with the software atlas.ti, using different theoreticel 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.