Universitat Rovira i Virgili

PhD Fellows

Marcelo Silvio Barrera

He holds a degree in Sociology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), a Master's degree in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and a Master's degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). He has taught in the Sociology programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) and in the nursing and kinesiology programmes at the Universidad National de La Matanza (Argentina). He has also participated in several research projects in both institutions, on topics such as teenage pregnancy, nursing, and therapeutic care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others. He is currently a Martí i Franquès pre-doctoral fellow at the URV's Doctorate in Anthropology and Communication, in the line of Medical Anthropology.

Research interests: care-seeking processes; migration and health; schistosomiasis/Chagas disease.

marcelosilvio.barrera(ELIMINAR)@uvr.cat

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Elena Blanco de Tena-Dávila

Graduate in Nursing from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain, 2019); Master in Public Health with specialisation in Society, Violence and Health from the National School of Public Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Brazil, 2022). She has experience in academia and research in international contexts (Spain, Brazil and India); she has worked in the clinical setting as a family nurse and in development cooperation, and is a cellist. She is currently a pre-doctoral fellow with a FPU grant within the line of medical anthropology and global health of the PhD programme in Anthropology and Communication at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Her research focuses on transcultural mental health, suicide and community care.

elena.blanco(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Giulia Campaioli

 Bachelor in Psychological Sciences and Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Padua, Italy. Since publishing her first paper on pro-Ana online groups, Giulia has developed her research interest in the digital transformation of society and critical approaches in the social sciences, engaging in research collaborations and transdisciplinary training. She has carried out qualitative inquiry on rejection, digital media, and user's safety collaborating with the University of Padua, Northumbria University (UK); she also collaborated with the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens and Cooperativa Nivalis (Milan, Italy) on gamification approaches to tele-psychotherapy. She is now a PhD student in Anthropology and Communication, line of Medical Anthropology and global health, where she implements her background in mental health to investigate gender-based violence in Brazil.

giulia.campaioli(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Manuel D'Hers Del Pozo

Pre-doctoral fellow of the Martí Franqués programme (2022-2024) for the completion of his thesis in the Doctoral programme in Anthropology and Communication (URV). He holds a degree in Anthropology from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (Caracas, 2016) and a Master's degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention from the URV (2020). He is currently concentrating his efforts on the concept of "immobile migration" through his research on the care work of elderly people who remain in their places of origin, under circumstances marked by (in)mobility, as well as conditioned by the times of complex and multifactorial crisis that are being experienced in the Venezuelan territory.

Research interests: transnational migration, (in)mobility, times of crisis, care.

manuelvicente.dhers(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat  

  

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Enric Garcia Torrents
 

Pre-doctoral researcher beneficiary of a contract for the training of university professors from the Ministry of Universities (FPU 2019). Graduate in Anthropology and Human Evolution (URV-UOC, 2018), Master in International Trade (ISEAD, 2012) and Master in Biological Anthropology, specialty in human diversity and biomedical applications (UB-UAB, 2020). He has been a research assistant and external consultant in institutions such as Stanford Law School at Stanford University, or the Geneva Graduate Institute, working on the analysis of social networks and the impact of cognitive biases on decision making. More recently, he has conducted research on the etiology of schizophrenia and other mental disorders at the FIDMAG Hermanas Hospitalarias Research Foundation. As a student, he was beneficiary of an international mobility scholarship at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona (2015), a collaboration scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (2017) and a master's scholarship from the Universia Foundation (2019). He is currently developing his thesis on severe mental disorders, alternatives to coercion and social approaches to mental health at the Medical Anthropology Research Center.

Research interests: insanity, mental health, biocultural diversity, human rights.

research(ELIMINAR)@enricgarcia.me

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Valentina González Alzola

Bachelor in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Master's degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona, where she won the Extraordinary Prize for the End of Master's Studies in her promotion. She has participated in research groups and projects thanks to several collaboration grants in the departments of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work and Geography of the URV, working on family care in the former, and on touristification and urban mobility in the latter. Her lines of research have focused on different fields, on areas such as anthropology of education, political anthropology and, more recently, the field of critical urban studies, where she has made ethnographic incursions into the question of the securitisation of public spaces and their link with the processes of urban transformation. She is currently a pre-doctoral researcher with the Joan Oró FI2023-2024 grant in the doctoral programme in Anthropology and Communication at the URV, where she is carrying out research focused on urban space and care activities for the elderly and dependents.

Research interests: political anthropology, security, care, urban studies.

valentina.gonzalez(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Eva Neus Miralles Siré

Pre-doctoral FI-AGAUR fellow of the Doctoral Programme in Social Work at Rovira i Virgili University. Graduate in Early Childhood Education (UdL, 2020). Master in Innovation in Social and Educational Intervention (URV, 2021). University Specialist in Bereavement Support (UdL, 2018). Focused on research into the social problem of violence against children and interested in connecting the educational and social spheres. She has designed and implemented educational interventions to improve coexistence in the classroom. She has also carried out trainings for families and professionals for violence-free education. She has been a volunteer in social organisations supporting children who are victims of violence. She is currently participating in a social initiative to support victims of Child Sexual Abuse. She has recently participated in the #D-VioPrev study on the use of digitalisation for the protection of children and adolescents with disabilities. She is currently collaborating in the FEMMINOR research on the needs and rights of children of feminicide.

Research interests: socio-emotional well-being, early childhood, child abuse, child education.

evaneus.miralles(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Júlia Perarnau Moles

Pre-doctoral Martí i Franquès fellow of the Doctoral Programme in Anthropology and Communication, in the line of Medical Anthropology. Graduated in Social and Cultural Anthropology with mention in Anthropological Applications in Culture, Environment and Society at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2018), she studied the Interuniversity Master in Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and the Universitat of Barcelona (2020). She has worked for four years as a research technician at the Wassu-UAB Foundation linked to migration and sexual and reproductive health care, and is a member of the Grup de Recerca en Antropologia del Cos i la Sexualitat (GRACS) of the Institut Català d'Antropologia. She is currently interested in the study of reproduction, maternity and identity from a phenomenological point of view. 

Research interests: anthropology of the body, phenomenology, sexual and reproductive health, maternity, identity.

julia.perarnau(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Francisco Pérez Hernández

Anthropologist from the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Chile and Master in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. His research interests include political ecology and urban anthropology. The former was explored in his final thesis, investigating the situation of rurality in the context of water scarcity in Los Lagos region (Chile). In recent years, he has focused more specifically on the latter, with his Master's thesis on the issue of urban mobilities in the context of the neoliberal city and his current doctoral research. He is a Joan Oró FI2023-2024 fellow in the doctoral programme in Anthropology and Communication, in which he is carrying out research on community care, with special emphasis on the organisational potential of care in neighbourhood contexts. He has participated in research in Chile, Spain, Colombia and Mexico.

ervinfranciscoeugenio.perez(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat    

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Ramon Reis dos Santos Ferreira

He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, 2016), a master's degree in Public Health from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ, 2021), and a residency in Mental Health from the Institute of Psychiatry at UFRJ (IPUB/UFRJ, 2019). Additionally, he is also a specialist in psychopathology (Faculty of Medical Sciences of Santa Casa de São Paulo/FCMSCSP) and was a substitute professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ/Macaé), as well as an assistant professor at the Psychology Institute of the Augusto Motta University Center (UNISUAM), planning and teaching courses on psychopathology, psychoanalysis, narrative medicine, and other topics. His research interests focus on how macro-scale phenomena -such as culture, language, and psychological states- interact with and influence micro-scale phenomena, such as brain states.

ramon.reisdossantos(ELIMINAR)@estudiants.urv.cat

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Ana Santangelo

Graduate in Social and Cultural Anthropology by the University of Granada (2016). Master's degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health (URV, 2020). She works as an independent ethnographic collaborator and consultant. She is currently a pre-doctoral fellow FI-AGAUR of the Programme in Anthropology and Communication by Universitat Rovira i Virgili. She is working on her doctoral thesis on the sexual experiences of people with Locked-in Syndrome within the framework of the project "Anthropology and Phenomenology of Locked-in Syndrome" (DAFiTS, URV).

Resarch interest: medical anthropology, sexuality; locked-in syndrome.

ana.santangelo(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Marc Verdés i Oliva

Architect by the Barcelona School of Architecture of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2000); Social and Cultural Anthropologist by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2022); Master's Degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2023). He is currently a pre-doctoral fellow with an FPU grant (2023-2029) in the PhD in Anthropology and Communication at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili; he has a Master's degree in Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Thought from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

As an architect, he has experience in drafting urban planning and building projects, particularly in the field of cultural heritage; he has also taught architectural projects and theory at several Catalan universities.

As a social and cultural researcher, he has curated the new Museu del Blat in Cervera’s exhibits and has been in charge of its revitalisation; he has written several articles in journals specialising in rural change and the transformation of rural spaces; he has been awarded the 2021 Young Sociologist Competition Prize by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, and the Joaquim Capdevila i Capdevila Scholarship for Humanistic Studies and Social Sciences (2022-2023), awarded by the Consell Comarcal d'Urgell.

Research interests: rural transformation, new rurality, new residential models, social organization of care.

marc.verdes(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat  

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FORMER DOCTORAL FELLOWS

Julia Marine Chrètien

Research interests: feminist sociology and anthropology of labour as main framework, ethics of care, queer studies, and feminist epistemologies.

Thesis: ongoing

Supervisors: Dolors Comas d'Argemir, PhD; Yolanda Bodoque Puerta, PhD

juliamarine.chretien(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Lucía Denegri Méndez

Research interests: dimensions of corporeality, identity and intersubjectivity within the Locked-in Syndrome.

Thesis: ongoing

Supervisor: Fernando Vidal, PhD

lucia.denegri(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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 Julieta Maure

Research interests: women carers' health, doctor-patient relationship, chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Thesis: ongoing

Supervisors: Fernando Vidal, PhD; Francisco Ortega, PhD.

julietamarcela.maure(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat

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Marta Pi Martin

Research interests: long-term care, narratives of active ageing, collaborative housing, care roles, incidence of COVID-19.

ThesisCuidar-se en comunitat: les llars col·laboratives per a persones grans a Espanya

Supervisors: Dolors Comas d'Argemir, PhD.; Xavier Roigé Ventura, PhD.

marta.pi@urv.cat

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Oscar Lamora Giral

Research interests: mental health, food, art.

Thesis: Comiendo cosas de no comer. Tentativas antropológicas en torno a la Pica

Supervisor: Mabel Gracia, PhD.

oscarlamora@gmail.com

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Herena Coma Almenar

Research interests: ageing; family organisation of care; Moroccan population; Catalonia

Thesis: Cuidados, envejecimiento y migración. La organización social de los cuidados de personas migrantes de origen marroquí en Catalunya

Supervisor: Montserrat Soronellas, PhD.; Yolanda Bodoque, PhD.

herena.coma@urv.cat

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Thalita Kalix Garcia Santana

Research interests: socio-anthropology of food, heritage, social movements, food security and sovereignty, tourism.

Thesis: Good, clean and fair food for al: Slow Food role in safeguarding food heritage in Brazil and Germany

Supervisor:  Mabel Gracia, PhD.

thalita.kalixgarcia@urv.cat 

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Karen Anne Esther Hall

Research interests: functional disability; disability; discrimination; isolation and social media; autoethnography.

ThesisThriving in confinement with functional diversity: the role of technology and autoethnography

Supervisor: Blanca Deusdad Ayala, PhD.

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Marc González Puente

Research interests:  environmental anthropology; agrarian anthropology; agrarian transformations rural development; social reproduction; materiality of natural resources.

Thesis: Què farem amb aquesta terra? Una etnografia de la (des)agrarització

Supervisor: Montserrat Soronellas, PhD.

marc.gonzalez@urv.cat 

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Elisa Alegre-Agís

Research interest: Mental health; madness; family; history of psychiatry, gender.

Thesis: Stultifera domus. Del manicomio a la institución doméstica total: vida cotidiana, familia y esquizofrenia

Supervisors: Josep Maria Comelles, PhD.; Dr. Àngel Martínez, PhD.

elisa.alegre@urv.cat     

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Carlos Alonso Chirinos Medina

Research interest: social inequality, gender and life course; care and family; biomedical culture, narratives and experiences of illness; cultural processes of cooking, sustainability and food security.

Thesis: Cuando los hombres cuidan... cuando los esposos mayores cuidan. Experiencias de cuidado conyugal en contextos de enfermedad y discapacidad

Supervisor: Dolors Comas d'Argemir, PhD.

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Josep Puigbo Testagorda

Research interest: Urban and built space anthropology; technology, heritage.

Thesis: La producció de l'espai al Poblenou contemporani: nous actors socials 22@, moviment veïnal i neoliberalisme institucional

Supervisor: Joan Josep Pujadas, PhD.

josep.puigbo@estudiants.urv.cat 

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Isabella Riccò

Research interest: New Age; Folk medicine; Alternative Medicine.

Thesis: En busca de un «nuevo mundo mágico». De la medicina popular a las terapias New Age en un Occidente desencantado 

Supervisor: Josep Maria Comelles Esteban, PhD.

isabella.ricco@urv.cat

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Neus Jàvega Bernad

Research interest: death; islam; anthropology of religions; rituals.

Thesis: La mort en context migratori. La gestió pública i comunitària de la mort entre els marroquins del Camp de Tarragona.

Supervisors: Jordi Roca Girona, PhD.; Jordi Moreras Palenzuela, PhD.

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Laia Ventura Garcia

Research interest: chagas, risk, body.

Thesis: Mal de Chagas: una etnografia corporeïtzada sobre el risc latent 

Supervisor: Àngel Martínez Hernáez, PhD.

laia.ventura@urv.cat

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Maria Offenhenden

Research interest: migrations, domestic work; Stratified reproduction.

Thesis: "Si hay que romperse una, se rompe" El trabajo del hogar y la reproducción social estratificada 

Supervisors:  Yolanda Bodoque, PhD.; Montserrat Soronellas, PhD.

maria.offenhenden@urv.cat

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Egbe Manfred Egbe

Research interest: migration, precariety, economic crisis.

Thesis: Sub-Sahara African Immigrants in the 'Land of Plenty': Economic Crisis, Food Insecurity and Hunger in Tarragona and Lleida 

Supervisors: Josep María Comelles, PhD.; Mabel Gracia, PhD.

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Claudia María Anleu Hernández

Research interest: migrations, Latino Americans, resilience, social work.

Thesis: Latinoamericanos saliendo adelante. Una mirada desde la resiliencia sobre las migraciones y la intervención social con inmigrantes. 

Supervisors: Carmina Puig, PhD.; Montserrat Soronellas, PhD.

claudiamaria.anleu@urv.cat

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