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Biography

Hanna Kienzler is a Professor of Global Health and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. She completed her PhD in cultural and medical anthropology in the Departments of Anthropology and Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

She also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and the Psychosocial Research Division at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute at McGill University and as a Research Associate for the Trauma and Global Health (TGH) programme.

Blog: Symptomspeak – delving into the lived experience of wars and their aftermath, in suffering and mental health, and in health-seeking and healing. Catch up on the latest posts on Facebook or @symptomspeak.

Research

  • Global health
  • Health and mental health outcomes due to systemic violence, ethnic conflict and complex emergencies
  • Humanitarian and mental health interventions
  • Impacts of war and trauma on women
  • Refugee mental health 

As an anthropologist with a long-standing interest in the field of global health, Hanna investigates how systemic violence, ethnic conflict and complex emergencies intersect with health and mental health outcomes. She conducts ethnographic research on the impact of war and trauma on women in Kosovo; on what it means for persons with mental health problems to live and participate in their respective communities in Palestine; and on humanitarian and mental health interventions in fragile states.

Hanna holds two major grants:

  1. Wellcome Trust funded Collaborative Award, 'Mental Health and Justice', to investigate community-based support for persons with mental health problems in Palestine, Ghana and the UK.
  2. UK Research and Innovation, 'Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Research for Health in Conflict' (R4HC-MENA), to build research capacity in the field of mental health in conflict-affected areas of the Middle East with particular focus on Palestine.

Teaching

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

Further details

See Hanna's research profile