Anisha Chadha

As a sociocultural and medical anthropologist, my research projects have all focused on illuminating relationships between those who have the power to produce and distribute biomedical technologies, and those who use, or whose lives are implicated in the use of, those technologies. My current research focuses on the production of novel medical devices being created in South Asian startup companies, aimed at reaching vast rural as well as urban populations with unmet clinical needs. For this project, tentatively titled Hacking Health, I follow doctors and engineers who work in, and move between, high-tech Indian and US entrepreneurial sites, as they invent new technologies to address these perceived healthcare gaps. Multimodal methods—namely design ethnography and ethnographic film—as well as the fundamental inquires posed in comparative medical anthropology, guide the theory and practice of my research and teaching; I am also a filmmaker trained in NYU’s Culture & Media Program. My first ethnographic documentary, Chains of Custody traced the delayed progression of rape kits through medical, laboratory, and law enforcement institutions, and has screened at film festivals and as an educational resource.