Dr. Bregje De Kok’s research centers on care and mortality in the area of reproductive and maternal health. More specifically, she is interested in the normative and moral aspects of sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and how these affect community members’ and health professionals’ behaviors, and the interaction between them. Another core focus of her work is around care as practice and differing notions of ‘good’ care. Drawing from her diverse social science background, she blends ethnography, discourse, and conversation analysis to illuminate how policies, interventions, and care play out on the ground, and contribute to the development of health systems, policies, and interventions tailored to local concerns and realities. Bregje is currently an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology department at the UvA, where she is also a member of the Health, Care, and the Body team.

She received her PhD and MSc in psychology from the University of Edinburgh following her MA in psychology from the Radbound University Nijmegen. She has taught as a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and the Institute for Global Health and Development at Queen Margaret University and has previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh on an interdisciplinary ESRC-MRC fellowship. She has also worked as a researcher in Nursing studies at the University of Edinburgh on a study examining changes in the health visiting service in Scotland and whether it addressed the needs of  Pakistani and Chinese mothers in Scotland.