MAS Alumni, formerly known as the Amsterdam Society for Medical Social Scientists (the ASMSS), is a society which was called into life in 2016 by students of the UvA master programme of Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS). They noticed that there was no organised form of contact between students, alumni and potential employers.The MAS Alumni hopes to change that. Our goals are to build bridges between students, alumni and the workplace.
We joined the University of Amsterdam Alumni Association (AUV) on November 4th 2017. From that point on we have been both an alumni society as well as a student organisation. This will enable us to better achieve our goals of bridging education and practice together, as well as strengthen bonds between students and those in the field.
The MAS Alumni Association is for students and alumni of the Master’s programme in Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Students in the Master’s programme focus on health and healthcare in a political, economic and cultural context. In the programme we use social science theory and methods to critically analyse health issues in a globalising world.
More info can be found on UvA’s Medical Anthropology and Sociology page.
About MAS Alumni
MAS Alumni, formerly known as the Amsterdam Society for Medical Social Scientists (the ASMSS), is a society which was called into life in 2016 by students of the UvA master programme of Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS). They noticed that there was no organised form of contact between students, alumni and potential employers.The MAS Alumni hopes to change that. Our goals are to build bridges between students, alumni and the workplace.
We joined the University of Amsterdam Alumni Association (AUV) on November 4th 2017. From that point on we have been both an alumni society as well as a student organisation. This will enable us to better achieve our goals of bridging education and practice together, as well as strengthen bonds between students and those in the field.
The MAS Alumni Association is for students and alumni of the Master’s programme in Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Students in the Master’s programme focus on health and healthcare in a political, economic and cultural context. In the programme we use social science theory and methods to critically analyse health issues in a globalising world.
More info can be found on UvA’s Medical Anthropology and Sociology page.
Our Team
Having been raised in a household between two nationalities and two languages, Emma van Dalen has from a young age felt like she was in an in-between space, feeling not quite part of one nationality or the other. With this, she has always carried with her a fascination with people and their particularities in different cultural contexts, enjoying observations of minor details in everyday practices.
Emma received her bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology from Utrecht University in 2019. After 3 months of fieldwork in Denmark, she wrote her bachelor’s thesis on meanings around hygge and Danish identifications among students in Aarhus (2018). Furthermore, she has conducted an individual literature study in linguistic anthropology, where she studied social aspects of Icelandic as an evolving language in an age where English seems to dominate (2019).
Having had a slumbering passion for care and health-related topics, Emma had the opportunity to embrace this while studying medical anthropology. Her thesis was themed around everyday self care practices by women during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021).
At present, Emma works as researcher and data manager for the Embodied Ecologies project within the department for Knowledge, Technology and Innovation at Wageningen University. Additionally, she manages an ambitious and international badminton club in Eindhoven and also works there as a youth coach. Finally, she volunteers for the Dutch Badminton Federation in the workgroup for Diversity and Inclusion.
Bernardo has a master's degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal), having conducted his thesis research in wildlife and conservation in cooperation with the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno (Czech Republic) and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). While writing the master thesis, he followed two Minors in Gender and Culture and another on Sexuality Studies at Radboud University (Netherlands), getting familiar with Feminist Standpoint Theory and Feminist Science Studies.
In preparation for a master's application, he attended disciplines within anthropology and philosophy within the same institution and winter and summer schools in research methods, such as those organized by the European Consortium for Political Research. These courses contributed to fulfilling the pre-requirements for the MSc in Sociology (Gender, Sexuality and Society track) at the University of Amsterdam. The thesis project about biomedical research aimed at accessing the transmission of COVID-19 between animals, particularly pet animals, and humans. Influenced by the work of Annemarie Mol, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (2002), the purpose of the research was to understand how the different veterinary specialists conceptualize the virus and animals' bodies.
As part of the master's in medical anthropology (MAS), he is currently conducting fieldwork in an animal shelter in which he is following the rehoming process of cats. This research intends to understand the different practices and logics involved from the cat entering the institution until the cat's adoption.
He has also developed a course entitled Posthumans in the Anthropocene at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, at the University of Amsterdam and was a board member of LOVA (Dutch Feminist Anthropology network). Currently, he is a board member of the network Young Feminist Ambassadors, an organization affiliated with the governmental organization Dutch Women's Council.
Aleksi has a master’s degrees in sociology (University of Helsinki, 2014) and medical anthropology (University of Amsterdam, 2013) and he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Tampere on September 20th, 2021. Aleksi's PhD research focused on cognitive enhancement drug use among students, microdosing psychedelics, and medical cannabis (Hupli 2021).
Aleksi has also worked at the University of Amsterdam as a research assistant in the European Research Council- funded Chemical Youth etnographic research project, as a Finnish country coordinator for Global Drug Survey, as an evaluation researcher for a Finnish cannabis mini-intervention project, and as a contract evaluator for the latest EU drugs strategy. He is also a member of the Drugs Expert Group of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs under the European Commission, an academic member of the Finnish Institute for Bioethics, and a board member of the Finnish Association for Humane Drug Policy.
Our Team
Having been raised in a household between two nationalities and two languages, Emma van Dalen has from a young age felt like she was in an in-between space, feeling not quite part of one nationality or the other. With this, she has always carried with her a fascination with people and their particularities in different cultural contexts, enjoying observations of minor details in everyday practices.
Emma received her bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology from Utrecht University in 2019. After 3 months of fieldwork in Denmark, she wrote her bachelor’s thesis on meanings around hygge and Danish identifications among students in Aarhus (2018). Furthermore, she has conducted an individual literature study in linguistic anthropology, where she studied social aspects of Icelandic as an evolving language in an age where English seems to dominate (2019).
Having had a slumbering passion for care and health-related topics, Emma had the opportunity to embrace this while studying medical anthropology. Her thesis was themed around everyday self care practices by women during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021).
At present, Emma works as researcher and data manager for the Embodied Ecologies project within the department for Knowledge, Technology and Innovation at Wageningen University. Additionally, she manages an ambitious and international badminton club in Eindhoven and also works there as a youth coach. Finally, she volunteers for the Dutch Badminton Federation in the workgroup for Diversity and Inclusion.
Bernardo has a master's degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal), having conducted his thesis research in wildlife and conservation in cooperation with the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno (Czech Republic) and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). While writing the master thesis, he followed two Minors in Gender and Culture and another on Sexuality Studies at Radboud University (Netherlands), getting familiar with Feminist Standpoint Theory and Feminist Science Studies.
In preparation for a master's application, he attended disciplines within anthropology and philosophy within the same institution and winter and summer schools in research methods, such as those organized by the European Consortium for Political Research. These courses contributed to fulfilling the pre-requirements for the MSc in Sociology (Gender, Sexuality and Society track) at the University of Amsterdam. The thesis project about biomedical research aimed at accessing the transmission of COVID-19 between animals, particularly pet animals, and humans. Influenced by the work of Annemarie Mol, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (2002), the purpose of the research was to understand how the different veterinary specialists conceptualize the virus and animals' bodies.
As part of the master's in medical anthropology (MAS), he is currently conducting fieldwork in an animal shelter in which he is following the rehoming process of cats. This research intends to understand the different practices and logics involved from the cat entering the institution until the cat's adoption.
He has also developed a course entitled Posthumans in the Anthropocene at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, at the University of Amsterdam and was a board member of LOVA (Dutch Feminist Anthropology network). Currently, he is a board member of the network Young Feminist Ambassadors, an organization affiliated with the governmental organization Dutch Women's Council.
Aleksi has a master’s degrees in sociology (University of Helsinki, 2014) and medical anthropology (University of Amsterdam, 2013) and he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Tampere on September 20th, 2021. Aleksi's PhD research focused on cognitive enhancement drug use among students, microdosing psychedelics, and medical cannabis (Hupli 2021).
Aleksi has also worked at the University of Amsterdam as a research assistant in the European Research Council- funded Chemical Youth etnographic research project, as a Finnish country coordinator for Global Drug Survey, as an evaluation researcher for a Finnish cannabis mini-intervention project, and as a contract evaluator for the latest EU drugs strategy. He is also a member of the Drugs Expert Group of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs under the European Commission, an academic member of the Finnish Institute for Bioethics, and a board member of the Finnish Association for Humane Drug Policy.