Mette Nordahl Svendsen

Associate professor

Department of Public Health
Øster Farimagsgade 5 opg. B, Postb
1014 København K

Office: Bygning 10, stuen
Phone: +45 353-27624
Phone (Reception desk): +45 353-27623
E-mail: mesv@sund.ku.dk

Primary research areas

My research concerns the introduction of biotechnology in health care and the use of the pig as stand-in for the human being in experimental research. I am particularly interested in the complex relationships that unfold between health policies, clinical practice, and patient lives / pig lives. My research is based on ethnographic fieldworks and draws theoretically on anthropology, sociology, and science and technology studies. The empirical studies I have carried out concern genetic testing, donations of embryos to human embryonic stem cell research, the use of human subjects in pharmacogenomics research, and the use of the preterm pig in experimental research on nutrition for preemies.

Methodology is a continuous reflection in my research. On the one hand I practice critique, on the other I collaborate with health professionals as a peer. Interested in this tension between critique and engagement I explore the knowledge politics of critically engaged research and the possibilities to define truth, necessity and perspective embedded in interdisciplinary collaborations.

Current research

"Life at the margins: modeling pigs and humans in biomedical research" headed by professor Lene Koch. Funding obtained from the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication.  

Prizes
Winner of Cultural Horizons Prize 2012 awarded by the Society for Cultural Anthropology for her article “Articulating Potentiality: Notes on the Delineation of the Blank Figure in Embryonic Stem Cell Research” in the journal Cultural Anthropology in 2011.

Teaching

I teach "Qualitative Methodology" and supervise bachelor and master students.

Centre Director at Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies (MeST)

Selected publications

• Svendsen, MN 2011, ' Articulating potentiality. Notes on the Delineation of the Blank Figure in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research ' Cultural Anthropology , vol 26, no. 3, pp. 414-437.

• Svendsen, MN & Koch, L 2011, ' In the mood for science: A discussion of emotion management in a pharmacogenomics research encounter in Denmark ' Social Science & Medicine , vol 72, no. 5, pp. 781-788.

• Svendsen, MN & Koch, L 2009, '   Between Neutrality and Engagement: A Case Study of Recruitment to Pharmacogenomic Research in Denmark ' BioSocieties , vol 3, no. 4, pp. 399-418.

• Schwennesen, N , Svendsen, MN & Koch, L 2008, ' Beyond informed choice: Prenatal risk assessment, decision-making and trust ' Etikk i Praksis , vol 2, no. 1, pp. 11-31.

• Svendsen, MN & Koch, L 2008, ' Unpacking the 'Spare Embryo': Facilitating Stem Cell Research in a Moral Landscape ' Social Studies of Science , vol 38, no. 1, pp. 93-110.