Biography
Trudie Gerrits is Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1993 most of her own research, publications and supervision of several PhD and Masters theses are related with reproduction, and infertility and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in particular. She conducted research in this field in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mozambique and Ghana) as well as in the Netherlands. In 1999 she was co-organizer of the first International Conference on ‘Social Science Research on Childlessness in a Global Perspective’ at the University of Amsterdam. She conducted extended research (PhD) – hospital ethnography - in a Dutch IVF clinic (PhD. Her book ‘Patient-Centred IVF: Bioethics and Care in a Dutch Clinic’ has been published with Berghahn Publishers in 2016. In 2012-2013 she did ethnographic research in two private clinics in Ghana, as part of a comparative study examining the transfer to and local appropriation of ARTs in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research has led to several scientific publications and conference presentations. Recently (2015-2017) she was the principal investigator of the research project ‘Involuntary Childlessness, ‘Low Cost’ IVF and Fertility Associations in Ghana and Kenya: Enhancing Knowledge and Awareness’(funded by Sharenet-the Netherlands, the Knowledge Platform for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This multi-disciplinary and multi-country research was a collaboration of academic staff and master students of the University of Amsterdam. Universities in Kenya and Ghana, and staff of fertility clinics and fertility support groups in Ghana and Kenya. Results of this project have been disseminated in Workshops with patients, professionals, researchers and NGO representatives in Ghana and Kenya. In November 2017 Gerrits co-organized and chaired a ‘Round Table Infertility’ at the University of Amsterdam, aiming to design a Plan of Action to address infertility in the Global South (including increasing access to more affordable treatment, prevention of infertility and de-stigmatization of people facing fertility problems). Gerrits is also the basic science officer of the ESHRE Special Interest Group ‘Global and Socio-cultural aspects of infertility’. In 2018, Gerrits is involved in the Jembatan project (funded by Sharenet the Netherlands), which aims to initiate, upscale and improve interventions to address infertility and fertility problems in Indonesia, by stimulating knowledge exchange and collaboration between an infertility support group a and PKBI Yogyakarta (NGO focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights).
