Liberal Arts and Sciences
Megan Cogburn Research Group
Led by Megan Cogburn · Sociology and Criminology & Law
What we study
Dr. Cogburn studies maternal health, care and global health policy in Tanzania through ethnography: how women, birth attendants and health workers handle pregnancy, childbirth, pain and palliative care.
What working here is like
- Fieldwork
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Becoming Mothers: maternal health in rural Tanzania
An ethnographic study examining pregnancy and childbirth care in Tanzania, exploring how women and health workers navigate institutional deliveries and cultural values.
Pain and palliative care practices in Tanzania
A collaborative ethnography investigating pain management and end-of-life care in Tanzanian communities.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- “The pain is not real, it's feki”: Recognizing pain, gender, and structural inequalities in a Tanzanian hospital
2026 · Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Explores how Tanzanian healthcare workers distinguish real pain from 'feki' pain in a clinical setting.
- Waiting in a Place of Impossible Demands: Surveillance-Care in a Tanzanian Maternity Waiting Home
2025 · Medical Anthropology
Shows how surveillance-care in Tanzanian maternity waiting homes creates risks and unexpected care.
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- Pain Management
2025 · Annual Review of Anthropology
Highlights how race, gender, class, and global neoliberalism shape attitudes toward pain and pain management.
- Sociocultural diversity in approaching pain at the end of life
2025 · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Studies how sociocultural values shape pain care and end-of-life pain management in diverse settings.
- Traditional Birth Escorts?
2025 · Routledge eBooks
Examines how Tanzanian midwives adapt to government policies requiring them to escort women to hospitals.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
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