Susanne Ådahl (Ph.D., postdoc)

Researcher, Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland

Susanne Ådahl (Ph.D., postdoc) is currently working as a researcher on cultural heritage issues in a Horizon 2020 funded project in Arcada University of Applied Sciences. Her background is in social anthropology (University of Helsinki & University of Amsterdam) with a specialization in medical anthropology. She has extensive research experience (16 years) studying the relationship between health, illness, embodied experience and culture and has conducted research on reproductive health issues, idioms of distress, social suffering, medical technology and mental health issues. Her work has been published in high-ranking journals such as Mortality, Culture unbound and Medical Anthropology Theory. She is involved in several research networks and has participated in multi-disciplinary research projects.

Susanne also has training in design management/service design from the University of Lapland (2019) and is passionate about conducting research and using ethnographic methods and mindset to create services that people truly need and that help them improve their lives. Strategy work and negotiation skills, active and empathetic listening are areas of interest in relation to development work. She received training in constructive and empathetic listening for mental health work 2018-2021. She also has experience of facilitating service design and strategy workshops, as well as providing strategy consultancy services to non-profit organisations.