My research centres on the intersection of substance use, homelessness, and social marginality, with a longstanding commitment to understanding these issues from the perspectives of people with lived experience. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and collaboration with outreach workers, low‑threshold services, and communities of people who use drugs, my work explores how individuals navigate welfare systems, risk environments, and pervasive inequalities in health and access to care. Among others, this is done through the development of ethnographically informed service journeys that examine and contextualize how vulnerable populations experience, access, and move through systems of care. Most recently, I have explored these issues in a project on digitalization examining how people who use drugs - and the service providers who support them - seek to navigate an increasingly digitalized health system. This work highlights both the opportunities and the exclusions produced by digital welfare reforms, particularly for those already facing health and social inequalities.

 

Over the past three years, I have further been extensively engaged in research on non‑prescribed opioid use among young people. Building on this work, I have recently embarked on a new project on naloxone that examines how young people and their family members and close relations potentially come to act as ‘first responders’ in overdose situations.

 

I welcome students interested in oursuing a PhD in these and related areas to reach out, including:

If you are considering a PhD in these fields, I am happy to discuss ideas and supervision possibilities. In addition to the research described above, carried out in a Nordic welfare state setting, I have over a decade's research experience in Southeast Asia and would also be interested in co-supervising PhD projects that explore these issues in other global settings.