This is a multidisciplinary team with expertise in anthropology, population health and social statistics, with experience of conducting fieldwork together in this project site in South-Central Ethiopia.
Mhairi is a Professor in Anthropology at the University of Bristol. Prior to joining Bristol in 2005 she undertook degrees in Anthropology at Durham and Cambridge, PhD, and Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCL.
As an applied evolutionary anthropologist her work applies ideas from human behavioural ecology to emerging population health issues in low-income settings. Her research has explored the causes and consequences of human population and health change in rural Ethiopia, and the social dynamics of normative practices which are harmful to women, including female genital mutilation/cutting.
Much of her research is based on anthropological fieldwork in a rural sub-district of South-Central Ethiopia. Having established this as her primary field-site during her PhD studies, it has since facilitated further work by other postgraduate students and collaboration with local researchers at Addis Ababa University. This work has led to the development of unique and detailed longitudinal picture of the population health of this community over at least 70 years; including growth and demographic data, child activity patterns and social norms governing attitudes to health, education, and reproduction.
Eshetu is an Associate Professor of Population Studies & Anthropology in the Population and Gender Institute at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Eshetu is a demographer whose research interests include reproductive health (fertility, family planning, mortality, morbidity), maternal and child wellbeing (health seeking, nutrition and schooling), HIV/AIDS, gender inequality and empowerment, family formation and dissolution, migration and urban dynamics, transition to adulthood (education, employment, marriage, parenthood), and Social policy and planning analysis.
Eshetu is Head of the Population and Gender Research Unit at Addis Ababa University
[awaiting update…]
Janet is a Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Bristol, UK.
She was recently awarded a PhD at the University of Bristol for her thesis which examined the persistence of female genital mutilation/cutting and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa, using Demographic Health Surveys.
Prior to undertaking her PhD she did her undergraduate degree in Anthropology at Cambridge, and worked in international development which included projects in Ethiopia.