What is your background and how did you get to where you are today?
"I am a social scientist with a passion for collaboration with different scientific disciplines and fields. I am interested in development, migration and global health. To these issues, I bring human-centered insights using ethnography: a research approach that requires immersing yourself in people's everyday lives to understand the world on their terms. As a dual national (British-Italian) and later naturalized Senegalese citizen, I have always been drawn to exploring and building bridges between worlds other than my own. I lived and worked in various European, African and Asian countries before settling in the Netherlands, where I joined the Anthropology department of the VU ten years ago."
Can you say something about the social relevance of the research?
"In my current research I focus on global equality and transnational cooperation between Africa and Europe in promoting a cure for HIV. People living with HIV today can lead relatively normal lives, but are forced to take medications for life. A cure would make a huge difference for them and their loved ones and have a significant impact on global healthcare. A major challenge in research for a cure is that HIV comes in different subtypes, which are unevenly distributed throughout the world. This means that a drug discovered in the Netherlands, for example, may not be effective for people with HIV in African countries, where the largest number of infections are concentrated.
"My research project, which is supported by NWO/AIDSfonds is aimed at combating such a risk. Within this multidisciplinary project, we strive for an HIV cure “for everyone”, by strengthening collaboration between scientists in the Netherlands and in African countries and the dialogue between the main parties involved in the discovery of a cure. In the project, a team of social scientists and I work together with biomedical researchers, doctors and people with HIV in the Netherlands, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. We use ethnography to connect these different perspectives for a future cure that is globally equitable in reach, acceptable to those who need it, and scalable in both high- and low-income settings.
"A global HIV cure requires cooperation at different levels. From people living with HIV and their communities, to frontline health workers, to physicians, to translational and basic scientists, to the regulatory frameworks that govern their work. Moreover, collaboration at different locations (in Africa and Europe) is very important to understand each other and work in synergy.
"For over twenty years I have bridged the perspectives of different stakeholders on different continents, while exploring the links between migration and development. I look forward to contributing to a HIV cure with this experience.”
If there was one thing you would say to your 18 year old self, what would it be?
"Be confident in expressing your opinion, even if it is different. One day this will be your greatest asset."