A.R. Wojcik

I am a PhD candidate at Maastricht University and part of the European Research Council funded project ‘Making Clinical Sense’. I situate myself between the fields of medical anthropology and science and technology studies. My research currently focuses on the role of educational technologies (broadly speaking) in training the often embodied, sensory skills of physical examination at the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana. More specifically, I explore how medical students train the skill of diagnostic touch as well as how touch functions as a pedagogical tool.

Methodologically I identify as an ethnographer who dabbles in sensory methods. Alongside developing my personal ethnographic practice, which draws heavily from participant observation and elicitation methods, I am experimenting with members of the ‘Making Clinical Sense’ project in developing what it means to conduct team sensory ethnography.  

Before coming to Maastricht University, I completed the Social Sciences Research Master’s (MSc) at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) with a focus on health, care and the body, and I obtained my Bachelor of Arts from the University of Hartford (USA) with a focus in communication and gender studies.