Marlyse Debergh

About my Postdoc.Mobility (2022-2024)

I am a postdoc researcher in sociology. I was awarded by a Postdoc.Mobility grant from the Swiss National Foundation for a research fellowship at the Department of anthropology of the University of Amsterdam. My host professors are Jeannette Pols and Rachel Spronk.

I am also an associate researcher at the University of Geneva.

My postdoctoral project (Avortement tardif: ethnographie du vécu de femmes en Suisse romande) focuses on the experiences of late term abortion in Switzerland from an ethnographic and feminist perspective.

My research interests include health and medical sociology, ethnography, and gender and feminist studies.

About my PhD thesis (defended on June the 13th of 2022)

I was a PhD researcher and teaching assistant from 2016 since 2022 at the University of Geneva. I worked under the co-supervision of Prof. Claudine Burton-Jeangros (University of Geneva), and Prof. Véronique Mottier (University of Lausanne, and Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK).

What does sexual health signify? My research aims at questioning this international notion, by analysing how sexual health is put into practice in two sexual health institutions, located in the Western part of Switzerland.

The first institution is a sexual health centre for the general public (previously known as "family planning clinic"). The second institution is a sexual health centre for men who have sex with men (MSM).

Based on a comparative ethnography, I gather and analyse different types of qualitative data :

• Multi-sited ethnographic observations of sexual health consultations
• In-depth interviews with health professionals (physicians, nurses, and sexual health counsellors), and patients (N=30)
• Various institutional documents (medical protocols, information booklets, archives)

Research Keywords

Sexual health, reproductive justice, sexual health centres, ethnography, health and medical sociology, gender and feminist studies.

Research interests

• Health and medical sociology
• Ethnography
• Gender and feminist studies