Our People

Staff and students at the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society (CBSS) bring expertise and experience from across the humanities and social sciences, working together to propel interdisciplinary research, education, and engagement.

Academic Staff

Sophie Atherton

Research Fellow

Dr Sophie Atherton (she/her) is a sociologist interested in gender, sexuality, health and education. She is currently working as a Research Fellow on the project: ‘Viral Memories: from HIV to COVID-19 and beyond’.

Baum & Leahy

Visiting Arts Fellows

Baum & Leahy (Amanda Baum and Rose Leahy) are Visiting Arts Fellows who collaborate with practitioners across disciplines, to open up, question and sensorialise scientific research into tactile, participatory experiences and multisensorial installations. During their fellowship at CBSS, Baum & Leahy explore imaginaries of the holobiont through arts and social research collaboration, and how this relates to the idea of environmental microbial justice.

Nicola Boydell

Lecturer

Dr. Nicola Boydell (she/her) is a Lecturer in Social Science and Public Health and a Co-Principal Investigator on a collaborative project funded by the Scottish Government. This project is using participatory approaches to improve sexual and reproductive health services. Working with people who have experienced abortion and those who provide abortion services, the project is working to co-design adaptable models for post-abortion contraception. The goal is to enhance contraceptive services and improve choices and access to contraception for people seeking abortion in Scotland. 

Sarah Chan

Associate Director

Dr Sarah Chan (she/her) is a Reader in Bioethics and an Associate Director of CBSS. Sarah Chan is an interdisciplinary bioethicist whose research explores the ethics of emerging modes of biomedicine. She works actively to engage scientists, policymakers, and wider publics in discussions around these issues. Previously at Edinburgh she was Director of the Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and Law. 

Sarah Cunningham-Burley

Co-Director

Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley (she/her) is Co-Director of CBSS and Personal Chair of Medical and Family Sociology in the Deanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences. She is an experienced medical and family sociologist, with expertise in building and supporting collaborative work between medicine, sociology, and beyond. Sarah's current research focusses on the social and ethical contexts of medical technologies, data science, engagement, health and disease using predominantly qualitative methods. 

Marie de Lutz

Postdoctoral Research Fellow 

Marie de Lutz (she/her) is a postdoctoral research fellow whose research explores the political economy of knowledge production, cutting across medical anthropology, science & technology studies, and political ecology. Marie is currently examining how data-driven technologies are mediating menstruation(-adjacent) practice in Colombia. Their PhD thesis in anthropology (Geneva Graduate Institute), is an ethnography of body-territory relations and knowledge production around the mobilisation of the menstrual cup in Colombia.

Giulia De Togni

Chancellor’s Fellow

Dr Giulia De Togni (she/her) is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Chancellor’s Fellow and Turing Fellow. She joined the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society in 2019 after completing her PhD at University College London. She specialises in Science and Technology Studies with degrees in Social Anthropology, Japanese Studies, and Legal Studies. Her work focuses on promoting responsible research and innovation for AI and robotics in the health and care sectors. 

Dr Helen Eborall

Senior Lecturer

Dr Helen Eborall (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Public Health. She teaches on the MBChB (Medicine) degree – leading the ‘Health in Communities’ unit within the Social and Ethical Aspects of Medicine module – and on the Master in Public Health. She leads social science and qualitative research work streams of research programmes of complex interventions in healthcare, including for screening, prevention and management of long-term health conditions, and in the context of trials.

Lukas Engelmann

Senior Lecturer

Dr Lukas Engelmann (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow who specialises in the history of medical knowledge and history of epidemiology. He leads the Epidemy Lab at Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), which researches the history of epidemiological reasoning, funded by an ERC Starting Grant. 

Andrea Ford

Wellcome Research Fellow

Dr Andrea Ford (she/her) is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Social Sciences and Humanities. A cultural and medical anthropologist, she is currently conducting a five-year, in-depth ethnography which will address a series of complex cultural questions around women’s health futures. Her study will specifically examine 'FemTech Innovation’, from period tracking apps to AI diagnostics to virtual postpartum communities, and whether this tech is, in fact, solving the right problems

Joana Formosinho

Interdisciplinary Research Fellow

Joana Formosinho (she/her) is an Interdisciplinary Research Fellow, working within the field of Science and Technology Studies. Joana’s research focuses on the social dimensions of biology; particularly microbiomes. She has a background in the biological sciences. Her research aims to increase capacity—within and beyond academic communities—to advance human flourishing whilst conserving biodiversity and planetary health. She has expertise in science and technology studies, social studies of microbes, gaia social science, interdisciplinary methods and artscience methods.

Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra

Senior Lecturer

Dr Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra (she/her) is Senior Lecturer in Bioethics and Global Health Ethics, and Deputy-director of the JK Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law. Her writing covers ethical issues related to global health emergencies, public health, global surrogacy, sex-selection, biomedical research, racism in health and the concepts of exploitation vulnerability and power in bioethics.   

Jeni Harden

Professor

Professor Jeni Harden (she/her) is Personal Chair of Social Science in Medicine. She is an experienced qualitative researcher using participatory research approaches to improve health services. She is also Co-Director of Education for the Usher Institute and Co-Chair for BeSST (Behavioural and Social Science Teaching in Medicine). 

Jaime Garcia-Iglesias

Chancellor's Fellow

Jaime Garcia-Iglesias (he/him) is a Chancellor's Fellow with a PhD in Sociology. He in an interdisciplinary researcher who leads on a number of projects, exploring the impacts of pandemics and outbreaks on the health of gender and sexual minority groups, including HIV, COVID, and mpox. He specializes in the intersections of sexuality, internet and health, with previous work focused on PrEP use, intimacy online, and HIV prevention. 

Sarah-Jane Judge

Science Fellow

Dr Sarah-Jane Judge is Public Engagement practitioner with the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology. She is currently on secondment to the Usher Institute, undertaking a Science Fellowship with the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society. Her area of interest is the impact of research adjacent activities on research culture, with a particular focus on the impact public engagement can have on researchers’ wellbeing and sense of inclusion in their institution. 

Abby King

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Abby King (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, anthropologist on the Data and healthcare Revolution (DARE) research project at STIS and an associate centre member. Her work explores the use of telehealth in the provision of mental health care, the implementation of electronic prescribing technologies in hospital and the meanings and cultures guiding understandings of 'access to care'.  She leads work on the changing data/care relations that are enacted through the use of wearables in home-based clinical trials. 

Marie Larsson

Research Fellow

Marie Larsson is a Research Fellow at the Usher Institute, Centre for Population Health Sciences and at CBSS. She is a sociologist especially interested in contraception, abortion, sexuality, power, medicine and healthcare. She is working on the SCOPE study which is funded by the Scottish Government as part of their sexual health and blood borne virus action plan: 2023 to 2026 and seeks to co-design adaptable models for post-abortion contraception in Scotland.  

Chase Ledin

Lecturer

Dr Chase Ledin (he/him) is a Lecturer in Social Science and Medicine in the Usher Institute, specialising in critical public health, sociology, medical education, and science and technology studies (STS). Previously a Research Fellow at CBSS, his current work explores sociotechnical imaginaries of sexual health, biomedical innovation, and public health policy in Scotland. He also teaches on the MBChB degree and is course organiser for the module "Foundations of Knowledge" on the Bioethics, Law and Social Science intercalated degree. 

Nandini Manjunath

Arts Fellow

Dr Nandini Manjunath (She/Her) is, as the Co-lead of Choreography of Thieya Arts, an Artistic Fellow at CBSS. A registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist, Trauma therapist, Choreographer and Lecturer in Arts Therapies at Queen Margaret University, Nandini specialises in arts-led research. In collaboration with academics at CBSS, Theiya Arts are currently working on Maiden | Mother | Whore, a multi-disciplinary mixed-media performance/exhibition that explores the complex relationships between women, social structures, health and social policies, and institutions

Carolina Mayes 

Research Fellow

Dr Carolina Mayes (she/her) is a Research Fellow studying the history and contemporary influence of genetic epidemiology at the Epidemy Lab at STIS. She is broadly interested in the intersection between biomedicine and public or population health, and particularly the application of genomic technologies in personalised and stratified risk predictions. 

Catherine Montgomery

Senior Lecturer, Chancellors Fellow

Dr Catherine Montgomery (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. She has expertise in the sociology of science and medicine and digital health and works on research and public engagement with CBSS. She leads the UKRI-funded project Data and the Healthcare 'Revolution' (DARE), exploring how informatics and medicine are re-shaping each other and how data-driven healthcare is changing conceptions of health, illness and personhood.

John Nott

Research Fellow

Dr John Nott (he/him) is a Research Fellow specialising in the history of medicine at the Epidemy Lab at STIS. He is currently working on the history of biomedicine, scientific surveillance and the economisation of health in the British Empire. 

Karissa Patton

Interdisciplinary Research Fellow

Dr Karissa Patton (she/her) is a historian of gender, sexuality, health, and activism and a recipient of the Wellcome Early Career Award. Her reproductive justice framework analyses the local and regional landscapes of healthcare policy, on-the-ground health services, doctor-patient relationships, and activist health models. Her current research includes work on the Pelvic Health & Public Health project, and a comparative study on the history of reproductive and sexual healthcare and activism in Canada and the UK from the late 1960s - 1980s. 

Max Perry

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Max Edward Perry (He/Him) is a DARE Postdoctoral Researcher who specialises in healthcare, technologies, and bureaucracy. He is currently working on the DARE research project, investigating the role of policy in data-led/data-driven healthcare. Max wrote a PhD on medical records, and their role in clinical thought. He is interested in the relationships between bioscientific ways of thinking, healthcare bureaucracies, and the ways clinicians and patients construct knowledge. 

Martyn Pickersgill

Co-Director

Professor Martyn Pickersgill (he/him) is Co-Director of CBSS and Personal Chair in the Sociology of Science and Medicine at Edinburgh Medical School. He is also Co-Director of the Wellcome PhD Programme ‘One Health Models of Disease: Science, Ethics, and Society’. Martyn works across medical sociology and science and technology studies, with additional interest in medical humanities. He is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration with biomedical and public health colleagues. Martyn’s scholarship, teaching, and engagement relate to the social dimensions of biomedicine, and in particular on the sociology of epigenetics, neuroscience, and the psy discipline

Carol Porteous

Patient Public Involvement Lead, PhD Candidate

Carol Porteous is a PhD Candidate examining patient public involvement (PPI) in research. Carol also works as a Patient Public Involvement Lead in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, having worked in PPI in research for many years she is passionate about PPI and about exploring the values and value in PPI activities. She has held a variety of positions including as PPI Advisor at UCL and PPI Lead for the Research Design Service London, based at King’s College London. 

Nayha Sethi

Chancellor’s Fellow, Senior Lecturer

Dr Nayha Sethi is a Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in Data Driven Innovation who has worked as a socio-legal research fellow on many projects. Her work explores the blurring of boundaries between, and building of responsible regulatory approaches across healthcare, research and innovation. It emphasises the importance of involving stakeholders within the development of regulatory approaches. Her work considers these topics alongside themes such as trust and social licence in data driven innovation, Artificial Intelligence, and global health emergencies.  

Clare Sharp

Research Fellow

Dr Clare Sharp (she/her) is a mixed methods researcher with experience across a range of health and social research projects within government, academia and the commercial research sector. Clare joined the university to work on a qualitative study to understand the experiences and needs of female transplant patients as they journey through the organ transplantation process.

Steve Sturdy

Professor

Professor Steve Sturdy (he/him) is Professor of the Sociology of Medical Knowledge, based in the Science Technology and Innovation Studies subject group. He has previously served as Head of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, as Deputy Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, and as Co-Director of the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society. His research ranges broadly across the development of the biomedical sciences and medical practice from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.   

Nicola Sugden

Postdoctoral Research Fellow 

Dr Nicola Sugden (She/Her) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in STIS, working on the Data and the DARE project.  Nicola is a historian of medicine whose work has interrogated evolution and genetics; psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry; disability, inclusion, and ethics; and reproductive technologies. She is conducting research into citizen-centred data sharing and the changing figure of the person at the centre of 'person-centred' records. 

Laia Ventura Garcia

UKRI Guarantee Fellow

Dr Laia Ventura Garcia (she/her) is a medical anthropologist and UKRI Guarantee Fellow (following a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship). She is the Principal Investigator on The EthnoCC, an ethnographic study investigating the everyday lived experiences of early-stages cervical cancer in the UK. She has an interest and experience in infectious diseases, environmental health, cervical cancer, illness experiences, ethnography and medical anthropology. 

Ingrid Young

Senior Lecturer

Dr Ingrid Young (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer, programme director for Bioethics, Law and Society intercalated degree (BMedSci), and teaches on the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) degree. She specialises in arts-based and participatory methods, sexual and reproductive health, HIV, biotechnologies and social justice, LGBTQ+ health, health activisms, disability and chronic health. She is currently working on a British Academic supported Doing Disability Futures project, leading on experiences of marginalized and disabled LGBTQ+ communities. 

Students

NameRoleProfile
Sophie BuijsenPhD Candidate in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Sophie Buijsen profile and contact details
Catherine CarverPhD Candidate in Population Health SciencesCatherine Carver profile and contact details
Sarah CheungPhD Candidate in PoliticsSarah Cheung profile and contact details
Gideon Cornel MseePhD Candidate in One Health Models of DiseasesGideon Cornel Msee profile and contact details
Jorge Crespo SuarezPhD Candidate in Population Health SciencesJorge Crespo Suarez profile and contact details
Jarmo De Vries PhD Candidate in Science, Technology and Innovation StudiesJarmo De Vries profile and contact details
Hadewych HonnéPhD Candidate in Science, Technology and Innovation StudiesHadewych Honné profile and contact details
Giorgia Kerr PhD Candidate in Social AnthropologyGiorgia Kerr profile and contact details
Cristina Moreno LozanoPhD Candidate in Science, Technology and Innovation StudiesCristina Moreno Lozano profile and contact details
Emma NancePhD Candidate in One Health Models of DiseasesEmma nance profile and contact details
Lisa RaederPhD candidate in Population Health SciencesLisa Raeder profile and contact details
Laila RajaniPhD Candidate in International DevelopmentLaila Rajani profile and contact details
Ruby Reed-BerendtPhD Candidate in LawRuby Reed-Berendt profile and contact details
Rebecca RichardsPhD Candidate in LawRebecca Richards profile and contact details
Vardev SachdevPhD Candidate in One Health Models of DiseasesVardev Sachdev, profile and contact details
Beren SekerciPhD Candidate in One Health Models of DiseaseBeren Sekerci profile and contact details
Jamie WebbPhD Candidate in Medical InformaticsJamie Webb profile and contact details

Professional Services

NameRoleEmailPhoneProfile
Jenny BosPublic Engagement and Knowledge Exchange ManagerJenny.Bos@ed.ac.ukJenny Bos profile
Miriam Brand-SpencerResearch Communications and Web Officermbrands@ed.ac.ukMiriam Brand-Spencer profile
Lorna ThompsonCentre for Biomedicine, Self and Society Administratorlorna.thompson@ed.ac.ukLorna Thompson Profile
Andrea WaltonPA to Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burleyawalton4@ed.ac.ukAndrea Walton profile

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