معرفی
Dr. Michelle Pentecost is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Global Health at King’s College London, affiliated with the School of Global Affairs and the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine. She holds honorary positions at the University of the Witwatersrand, Geneva Graduate Institute, and University of Cape Town. Her research bridges anthropology, clinical medicine, urban studies, and public health, focusing on global health equity, early life interventions, and the social dimensions of health in Africa. She leads the Trajectories project under the Healthy Early Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI), examining intergenerational health pathways from preconception to childhood in South Africa.
Trained as a physician (MBChB, University of Cape Town, 2008) and medical anthropologist (DPhil, University of Oxford, 2017), Pentecost’s work critiques global health frameworks, particularly around gendered futurity and epigenetic imperatives. Her 2024 book The Politics of Potential explores how scientific concepts shape intergenerational responsibility in South Africa. She co-edited the Cambridge Handbook of DOHaD and Society, a landmark text in developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD).
Her research has been supported by UKRI, DFID, Wellcome Trust, and British Academy. Key themes include biosocial collaboration in health trials, preconception care ethics, and qualitative methodologies in birth cohort studies. She advises on global health policy and mentors PhD students in medical anthropology, science studies, and STS. Her work appears in top journals like Medical Anthropology Quarterly, The Lancet, and BMJ Global Health.
