Małgorzata Rajtar

Małgorzata Rajtar, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Head of the Rare Disease Social Research Center (RDSRC). Her work bridges medical anthropology, bioethics, and global health, focusing on rare diseases, religious identity in healthcare, and socio-cultural dimensions of chronic illness. She leads interdisciplinary projects on rare diseases in the Baltic Sea region and has held prestigious fellowships including the EURIAS Senior Fellowship (2018–2019).

Research interests include the interplay between biomedical practices and cultural norms, vulnerability in healthcare policies, and the ethical implications of religious refusals (e.g., blood transfusions among Jehovah’s Witnesses). Her recent projects analyze global health frameworks and decolonial approaches to migration and healthcare access.

Rajtar has secured major grants as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI, including Polish-Austrian collaborative projects and funding from the National Science Center. She co-edited volumes on rare diseases and global health, and her articles appear in Social Science & Medicine, Medical Anthropology, and Ethnologia Polona.

Her work emphasizes ethnographic engagement with marginalized communities, particularly those affected by rare diseases, and critiques biomedical reductionism through socio-cultural lens.