Ruth Jane Prince

Ruth Jane Prince is Professor in Medical Anthropology at the Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo. She holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and has trained at UCL and the University of Copenhagen. Her research is centered on global health, care practices, citizenship, and state formation in East Africa, particularly Kenya.

Her academic interests include medical anthropology, global health, care and chronic disease, citizenship and the state, health systems, epidemics, anthropology of health insurance, environmental anthropology, chemical ethnography, anthropology of toxicity, and postcolonial studies. She has conducted extensive ethnographic and historical research on universal health coverage, health insurance, and bureaucratic labor in Kenya, often in collaboration with African institutions such as the University of Nairobi, Maseno University, and KEMRI.

Prince’s recent publications reveal a strong focus on universal health coverage, the moral economies of care, bureaucratic labor in health systems, and the legacies of Cold War medical aid in Kenya. Her work combines critical theory with deep ethnographic engagement, exploring how global health policies are interpreted and transformed in local contexts. She frequently examines the tensions between aspiration and failure, solidarity and inequality, and public good and privatization in African health systems.

• Co-winner, Royal Anthropological Institute’s Amaury Talbot Prize (2010) for The Land is Dying: Contingency, Creativity and Conflict in Western Kenya
• Winner, RAI Documentary Film Student Prize (2003) for Adhiambo - Born in the Evening

She has received major research grants including an ERC Starting Grant (2018–2023) and Norwegian Research Council grants (FRIPRO/Global Health 2021–2025, FRISAM 2013–2017). She has supervised numerous PhD students to completion and continues to mentor current candidates. Her work is deeply collaborative, involving partnerships in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. She teaches courses in medical anthropology, global epidemics, and global health, and contributes actively to public scholarship through platforms like Somatosphere and Africa Is a Country.