University of Sussex

Graduate Student, Anthropology

DPhil Candidate

Thesis Title: Listening to Women: Political Ethnographic Narratives of Breast Cancer in Spain

About

In asserting the importance of breast cancer, my DPhil thesis will address Spanish women's subjective experiences of breast cancer. In doing so, I hope to explore how they define their own illness and health priorities. Much of the research on breast cancer has focused on the psychological feelings of inadequate feminity resulting from the mastectomy. However, breast cancer brings its own multiple and complex problems, not only those well-known concerns relating to the body image and sexuality. Thus, my research intends to show how cultural notions of health, illness, gender and the social construction of women's bodies shapes Spanish women's experiences of breast cancer.

Key words: Critical medical anthropology, feminism, breast cancer, Spain, health, illness, embodiment, biomedicine, narratives, women´s health, public health, feminist methodology, gender, sexuality, nippleism

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