PhD Student

Before joining the research group as a PhD student, I completed a BA degree in African Studies at the University of Leipzig and an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. With a regional focus on East Africa, my research interests include the intersection of medical and environmental anthropology, multispecies ethnography, decolonization of knowledge, as well as forced migration and humanitarianism.

For my master’s project, I conducted field research in the Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda, critically examining the lived realities of the country’s internationally lauded “progressive” refugee policies.

My PhD project will focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially in relation to the use of antibiotics in livestock farming and the transmission of drug-resistant bacteria from animals to humans. I am interested in the complex entanglements of human life with microbes, animals and the environment. My particular focus lies on how these are shaped by economic, political and social processes, and the significant impact those enact on human and non-human health.

Research interests: Health and environment, more-than-human health, decolonization of knowledge, forced migration and humanitarianism.

E-Mail: vivien.barth@bnitm.de