Education, Continuing Education and Professional Experience
Education
- 2019 PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Basel; member of the Graduate School of Gender Studies. Dissertation: “Cosmopolitan Aging in Urban Zanzibar: Gender, Health and Transnational Care Spaces Related to Oman”
- 2011 MA in Social Anthropology and Law, University of Basel; Master’s thesis on asylum and migration
- 2009 BA in Law and Social Anthropology, University of Basel; study period in Social Anthropology, Law and French at the University of Lausanne
Continuing Education
- 2018–2022 Certificate in Higher Education Didactics, University of Basel
- Continuing education in leadership, communication, conflict management and change processes, University of Basel
- Continuing education in implementation science, academic publishing, research management and academic leadership
Professional Experience
- Since 2026 Professor of Urban Development and Social Space with a focus on Caring City, Institute for Social Planning, Organisational Change and Urban Development (ISOS), School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)
- Since 2024 Ambizione Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Principal Investigator of the EPICENTRE-PARTICIPATIO research programme (2024–2028) on participation in long-term care, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Nursing Science Foundation
- 2018–2026 Research and teaching at the Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel, with a focus on participation, person-centred care, quality of life, long-term care, and qualitative and ethnographic research methods
- 2021–2025 Postdoctoral Research Affiliate, Department of Health Services Research, CAPHRI, Maastricht University; research on innovative care, housing and service models
- 2015–2016 Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University; SNSF mobility fellowship
- 2013–2014 Visiting Lecturer, State University of Zanzibar; teaching in Social Work and Aging
- 2012–2016 Research Assistant and Project Coordinator in the SNSF-funded project “Aging, Agency and Health in Urbanizing Tanzania”, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel
- 2016–2017 Research Associate and Consultant, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; research and consultancy at the intersection of health, society and gender
- 2009–2012 Legal Advisor and Programme Manager in the field of migration and asylum at the Swiss Red Cross, as well as advisor to asylum seekers at HEKS
Areas of Expertise
- Caring Cities and care-oriented urban development
- Urban development and urban social spaces
- Care infrastructures, neighbourhoods and social participation
- Participation, co-determination and social inequalities
- Ageing, health and long-term care
- Innovative housing, care and service models
- Qualitative, ethnographic and participatory research methods
- Transdisciplinary research and knowledge transfer
- Socially sustainable and inclusive urban development
- Qualitative research methods in teaching and continuing education