Degrees:

BA Philosophy/Sociology, Trinity College Dublin, Valedictorian

MSc Anthropology, Oxford University, First Class Honors

Field Research Plans / History:

I work between medical, psychological, and neuroanthropology to investigate the experience of participants in clinical trials for psychedelics to treat trauma, depression, and addiction. Inside the clinic and the lab, I'm interested in how psychiatry and neuroscience construct objectivite accounts of subjective consciousness, the variation of efficacy, and the limits of neurobiological models of what it means to suffer and heal. I'm mostly interested in the stories patients tell about their experiences and transformations, and how the psychiatric model of disorder impacts their sense of self. I follow participants outside the lab, long term, in order to understand how they feel and think and behave in their dynamic social environments, how these environments affect their nervous system, and how their reality is shaped by regimes of value, truth, and politics.

My work has been supported by grants from the Yale Medical Historical Library and the Arts Council of Ireland.