
Dr Dominique Béhague
Reader in Global Health & Anthropology
Research interests
- Ethics
- Mental Health
- Policy
Contact details
Biography
Dr Dominique Béhague is a social anthropologist trained at Bryn Mawr College in the US (1991 – BA, 1992 – MA) and McGill University in Canada (2004 – PhD). Specialising in the ethnography of Brazil and the anthropology of health and biomedicine, she has developed specific interests in psychiatry, reproductive health and the politics of global health research.
In 2009, she completed a MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in an effort to support her long-standing engagement with interdisciplinary research and to complement her growing interest in the anthropology of statistical and 'qualitative' forms of reasoning in global health.
She joined King’s on a fractional appointment as a Senior Lecturer in Global Mental Health in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine. She works mainly on global mental health, both in Brazil and in an international context, consolidating links with the Institute of Psychiatry, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and with the newly expanded Centre for Medicine, Health and Society, headed by Professor Jonathan Metzl at Vanderbilt University, where she is currently Associate Professor.
Prior to coming to King’s, Dominique was Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology Department at Brunel University and Lecturer at the LSHTM, where she currently holds an Honorary Lecturership.
Research
Dominique’s main area of research is a direct outgrowth of her long-term research experience in Southern Brazil and is a collaborative project with the Department of Social Medicine at the Federal University of Pelotas and the LSHTM.
Using long-term ethnographic methods and anthropologically-informed epidemiological surveys, the most recent phase of this project explores how the medicalisation of 'adolescence' has been shaped by health care reform, the governance of health and economic inequities, and the psychiatric de-institutionalisation movement.
The study has followed the lives of a core group of young people, participants of the ongoing 1982 Pelotas birth cohort study, from the time these youth were 15 years of age up until their 25th birthday (1997-2007).
Dominique is completing a manuscript based on this material, entitled 'Troubled teens: psychiatry and the shaping of adolescence in the wake of Brazil’s new democracy.'
Further details
Research

Culture, Medicine & Power research group
Delving into the interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.

Mental Health & Society research group
Seeking to better understand the socio-political dimensions of mental health and illness in the Global North and South.

Mental health, migration and the megacity in São Paulo
Looking at the relationship between mental health and urban transformation since the late nineteenth-century in São Paulo.
Project status: Completed

Reproduction research cluster
Our interdisciplinary group examines the complex social, cultural, and political dimensions of reproduction.
News
Therapy works best when it encourages users to find their own solutions to social challenges
Evidence suggests that for young people, therapy works best when it openly acknowledges the social, political and economic context and encourages them to...

Events

Citizen participation, COVID-19, and democratisation in Brazil
This panel explores the social, political, and health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.
Please note: this event has passed.

Participating, Culture and Humility in Mental Health: Challenges & Opportunities
We are excited to host a public panel entitled “Participating, Culture and Humility in Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities” chaired by Dr Dominique...
Please note: this event has passed.
Research

Culture, Medicine & Power research group
Delving into the interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.

Mental Health & Society research group
Seeking to better understand the socio-political dimensions of mental health and illness in the Global North and South.

Mental health, migration and the megacity in São Paulo
Looking at the relationship between mental health and urban transformation since the late nineteenth-century in São Paulo.
Project status: Completed

Reproduction research cluster
Our interdisciplinary group examines the complex social, cultural, and political dimensions of reproduction.
News
Therapy works best when it encourages users to find their own solutions to social challenges
Evidence suggests that for young people, therapy works best when it openly acknowledges the social, political and economic context and encourages them to...

Events

Citizen participation, COVID-19, and democratisation in Brazil
This panel explores the social, political, and health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.
Please note: this event has passed.

Participating, Culture and Humility in Mental Health: Challenges & Opportunities
We are excited to host a public panel entitled “Participating, Culture and Humility in Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities” chaired by Dr Dominique...
Please note: this event has passed.