Anthropology Beyond the Academy Seminar with Charlotte Taomi Behrens (Columbia University, ReD Associates, Cambridge University) 

Anthropology Beyond the Academy Seminar with Charlotte Taomi Behrens (Columbia University, ReD Associates, Cambridge University)Thick Description Meets Medical Devices: Possibilities and the Contradictions of “Anthro for hire"

 

What happens when the research scope is dictated by client budgets? How does collaborative analysis with a team of social scientists change ethnographic interpretation? Or what does it mean to bring clients into the field to observe your research in real time? Drawing on healthcare ethnography projects from shadowing mobile wound care nurses to studying life with a tracheostomy, Charlotte explores both the possibilities and contradictions of applied anthropology in the private sector. This session invites you to an honest conversation about the intellectual trade-offs, surprising advantages, and ethical questions that emerge when anthropologists work in commercial settings.

 

Bio: 

Charlotte Taomi Behrens studied Cultural Anthropology at Columbia University (2017-2021), writing her senior thesis on non-monetary exchange systems in Europe. Since 2021, she has worked at ReD Associates, a consultancy that applies ethnographic methods to help organisations understand culture and human behaviour. Based first in Copenhagen and then in Paris, she conducts research across sectors including healthcare, organisational culture, and consumer industries. She is currently pursuing an MPhil in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University during her sabbatical.