Karin van Bemmel
Karin van Bemmel graduated in Anthropology (BSc and MSc) and Psychology (BSc) at Utrecht University. During her studies she focused -among other things- on local needs and emergency aid in Guatemala after severe destructions by Hurricane Stan (2006). Her master thesis (2009) explored the implications of Barack Obama’s presidency for a community in western Kenya and was awarded with the ‘Nieboerprijs’ (thesis award). Thereafter, she conducted a study on medical health for children with mobility handicaps in northern Tanzania on behalf of Njokuti Foundation (2010). In her PhD research (Ghent University/African Studies Centre, 2011-2017) she explored various discourses on nodding syndrome, a poorly understood affliction that affects thousands of children in northern Uganda. Based on this study, she made the film documentary ‘Nodding syndrome: an illness in the making’.
Currently, Karin is junior researcher at the African Studies Centre and part of the CRG “Pioneering futures of health and well-being: actors, technologies and social engineering”. Her interests include the intersection of culture, art and health and the intertwinement of narratives on illness, politics and conflict. Furthermore, she is co-founder of ‘Wandering Songs’, a project that creates a platform for artists in (post-)conflict areas.
Keywords: East Africa, conceptualizations, illness, politics, conflict, arts and medicine, film, music
Print
Dr.
K.
(Karin)
van
Bemmel
Former research staff
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8
Worlds apart?: exploring the problematic irrelevance of a psy-therapy promoting happiness-as-norm in an African context (2019)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
Nodding syndrome : an illness in the making (2017)
Type of Publication: Audiovisual
Nodding syndrome in Northern Uganda : conceptualization of an illness-in-the-making (2017)
Type of Publication: Book
Universal classifications, national approaches and specific situations : a comparative study on the conceptualizaion of nodding syndrome in Uganda and Tanzania (2017)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
The quest for treatment : the violated body of nodding syndrome in northern Ugenda. (2016)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
The rise and fall of nodding syndrome in public discourse : an analysis of newspaper coverage in Uganda (2016)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
Nodding syndrome or disease? : on the conceptualization of an illness-in-the-making (2014)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
Obama made in Kenya : appropriating the American dream in Kogelo (2013)
Type of Publication: Journal Article
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
Nodding syndrome in Northern Uganda : conceptualization of an illness-in-the-making
2017
K.L. van Bemmel
'Worlds apart?: exploring the problematic irrelevance of a psy-therapy promoting happiness-as-norm in an African context'
in: Current anthropology, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 214-215, 2019.
'Universal classifications, national approaches and specific situations : a comparative study on the conceptualizaion of nodding syndrome in Uganda and Tanzania'
in: Anthropology & medicine, pp. 1 - 20, 2017.
'The rise and fall of nodding syndrome in public discourse : an analysis of newspaper coverage in Uganda'
in: Critique of anthropology, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 168 - 196, 2016.
'The quest for treatment : the violated body of nodding syndrome in northern Ugenda.'
in: Journal of peace and security studies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 63 - 78, 2016.
Full text
'Nodding syndrome or disease? : on the conceptualization of an illness-in-the-making'
in: Ethnicity & health, pp. 1 - 19, 2014.
'Obama made in Kenya : appropriating the American dream in Kogelo'
in: Africa today, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 69 - 90, 2013.
Project status:
Completed