Email: dergesj@westminster.ac.uk

Research Interests

The exploration of the relationship between parent competency and child well-being; especially the intermediary role of the child’s attachment style.

General information

Jane is both an Occupational Therapist and Medical Anthropologist. She completed her PhD in Anthropology in 2008, following sixteen months of fieldwork in Sri Lanka, looking at the effects of the war on the Tamil population in the north. In particular, she studied the work of local healers and examined how their work was culturally and socially adaptive in the context of the conflict, and compared this to the work of some of the international aid agencies in relation to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  

Recent interests have focused on the well being of Mothers and their daughters. She is currently Research Associate in the Psychology department at the University of Westminster, working on a project that  will inform linkages between child well-being, child attachment style, parents’ feelings about their role, behavioural interactions between parent and child and contextual difficulties.

Conference and Seminar papers

2011: Bristol University, Anthropology Dept; ‘Ethnographic Approaches to Mediumship’.

2011: University College London. Medical Anthropology seminar series, ‘Silence, reconciliation and healing: psychosocial interventions following war in northern Sri Lanka’.

2010: Paper presentation and poster; UCL Teaching and Learning Conference and Exhibition (TILT): ‘Anthropology in South Asia: an Innovative North-South Teaching and Research Collaboration’.

2010: Symposium at Psykiatrisk Center Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. ‘Culture and Psychiatry: the Application of Anthropology in the Clinic’.

2009: Medical Anthropology at the Intersections Conference, Yale University, US. ‘Survival and transformation during conflict in northern Sri Lanka’.

2009: Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture (SSPC) Conference, San Francisco. ‘Clinical efficacy of ‘Cultural Formulations’ in acute mental health’.

2008: EASA Conference, Ljubljana. ‘Eloquent bodies: responses to violence in northern Sri Lanka’.

2008: UCL Social Anthropology seminar series; ‘Social transformation in ‘post-conflict’ northern Sri Lanka’.

Publications

Derges, J. (2010) ‘Ritual transformation in post-conflict Sri Lanka: eloquent bodies’, forthcoming 2012, Routledge Publishers.

Derges, J. (2009) ‘Eloquent bodies: conflict and ritual in northern Sri Lanka’ In Anthropology and Medicine, Vol.16, (1), pp. 27-36.

Derges, J. and Henderson, F. (2003) ‘Working with refugees and survivors of trauma in a day hospital setting’ In Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 16 (1), pp.82 - 98.

Review articles

Derges, J. (2009) review of ‘Impotent warriors: gulf war syndrome, vulnerability and masculinity’ by S. Kilshaw. In Anthropology and Medicine, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 334-336

Derges, J. (2006) review of ‘What’s behind the symptom? On psychiatric observation and anthropological understanding’ by A. Martinez-Hernaez. In Anthropology andMedicine, Vol. 13 (2) August 2006, pp. 190-191.

Derges, J. (2005) review of ‘Masking terror: how women contain violence in southern Sri Lanka’ by A. Argenti-Pillen. In Anthropology and Medicine, Vol. 12 (1) April 2005, pp. 80-82.

Derges, J. (2003) review of ‘Cultures under siege: collective violence and trauma’ by Antonius C.G. Robben and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco (Eds). In Anthropology and Medicine, Vol. 10, (1) April 2003, pp. 143-145.

Derges, J. (2003) review of ‘Mental health of Indian women: a feminist agenda’ by Bhargavi V. Davar. In Anthropology and Medicine,Vol. 10, (1), April 2003, pp. 145-146.