2024/07/18 by Potter, Caroline M.
paper · doi:10.5287/ora-7rm4qvzja
Medical anthropology at Oxford was intended to be a short-term departure from my first degree in chemical engineering, motivated by my desire to understand health and illness in the context of wider society rather than within the confines of the lab. Ultimately Oxford medical anthropology became something much more significant for me: a journey into unknown intellectual waters that led me to redefine both my career path and my academic identity. After being part of the first MSc/MPhil cohort and completing doctoral research within the programme in 2007, I became a postdoctoral research officer within Oxford's Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity before serving as Departmental Lecturer in Medical Anthropology from 2008-2014. I now work within the Health Services Research Unit, part of Oxford's Medical Sciences Division, where I hope to contribute the insights of medical anthropology towards interdisciplinary research informing health practice and policy at the national level.