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Staff Profile

Dr Mwenza Blell

Senior Lecturer

Background

Mwenza is a biosocial medical anthropologist. She has worked on a range of projects using qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate health, reproduction, and technology in the UK, the Nordic region, Latin America, South Asia, and East Africa. Her research draws from in-depth ethnography to examine intransigent and often invisible structures of injustice. 


Mwenza is a Researcher Education and Development Fellow with the RED team in School X, contributing to postgraduate training for students across the HaSS Faculty. She specialises in ethnography, mixed-methods research, interviews, questionnaire design, Black feminist approaches to research, and collaborative cross/inter/multi-disciplinary research.  

Research

My current projects include:

  • Kone Foundation-funded
  • Economic and Social Research Council-funded '
  • Office for Students-funded (Postgraduate Research Opportunities in the North East: Network for Equity)
  • Open Society Foundation-funded (with Data, Tech, and Black Communities)
  • Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust-funded (with Medact)
Publications

  • Articles

    • Blell M, Sudenkaarne T. . Journal of Lesbian Studies 2024, 28(4), 603-621.
    • Blell M, Liu S-JS, Verma A. . Gender, Work and Organization 2023, 30(2), 353-372.
    • Blell M. . Medical Anthropology Quarterly 2023, 37(3), 211-216.
    • Blell Mwenza, Homanen Riikka. . Travail, genre et sociétés 2023, 50(2), 79-95.
    • Sudenkaarne T, Blell M. . Bioethics 2022, 36(3), 328-335.
    • Blell M, Liu S-JS, Verma A. . International Journal of Human Rights 2022, 26(10), 1822–1841.
    • Keyes O, Hitzig Z, Blell M. . Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 2021, 46(1-2), 158-175.
    • Murtagh MJ, Machirori M, Gaff CL, Blell MT, de Vries J, Doerr M, Dove ES, Duncanson A, Hastings Ward J, Hendricks-Sturrup R, Ho CWL, Johns A, Joly Y, Kato K, Katsui K, Kumuthini J, Maleady-Crowe F, Middleton A, Milne R, Minion JT, Matshaba M, Mulrine S, Patch C, Ryan R, Viney W. . Wellcome Open Research 2021, 6, 311.
    • Mulrine S, Blell MT, Murtagh MJ. . Medicine Access @ Point of Care 2021, 5, 1-11.
    • Toorabally N, Mercer CH, Mitchell KR, Blell M, Burns F, Gilson R, McGregor-Read J, Allan S, De Ruiter A, Dhairyawan R, Fox J. . AIDS Care 2020, 32(3), 296-295.
    • Blell M, Hunter MA. . Frontiers in Medicine 2019, 6, 48.
    • Blell M. . Medical Anthropology 2018, 37(2), 117-130.
    • Murtagh MJ, Blell MT, Butters OW, Cowley L, Dove ES, Goodman A, Griggs RL, Hall A, Hallowell N, Kumari M, Mangino M, Maughan B, Mills MC, Minion JT, Murphy T, Prior G, Suderman M, Ring SM, Rogers NT, Roberts SJ, Van der Straeten C, Viney W, Wiltshire D, Wong A, Walker N, Burton PR. . Human Genomics 2018, 12, 24.
    • Murtagh MJ, Minion JT, Turner A, Wilson RC, Blell M, Ochieng C, Murtagh B, Roberts S, Butters OW, Burton PR. . BMC Medical Ethics 2017, 18(1), 24.
    • Blell MT. . Menopause 2015, 22(1), 79-87.
    • Weston G, Lawson JF, Blell M, Hayton J. . American Anthropologist 2015, 117(2), 316-328.
    • Hampshire K, Iqbal N, Blell M, Simpson B. . International Journal of Social Research Methodology 2014, 17(3), 215-231.
    • Blell M, Pollard TM, Pearce MS. . Journal of Biosocial Science 2008, 40(4), 563-575.
    • Cooper R, Blell M, Hardy R, Black S, Pollard TM, Wadsworth MEG, Pearce MS, Kuh D. . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2006, 60(11), 993-997.

  • Book Chapters

    • Blell M, Homanen R. . In: Franklin SB; Inhorn MC, ed. The New Reproductive Order: Changing In-Fertilities across the Globe. New York: NYU Press, 2025. In Press.
    • Blell M, McLellan J, Pettigrew R, Sperlinger T. . In: Cantat, Celine; Kumar Rajaram, Prem; Cook, Ian, ed. Opening Up the University: Teaching and Learning with Refugees. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2022, pp.111-122.
    • Simpson B, Blell M, Hampshire K. Moral Pioneers: Pakistani Muslims and the take-up of assisted reproductive technologies in the North of England. In: Simpson B, Hampshire K, ed. Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Third Phase: Global Encounters and Emerging Moral Worlds. London: Berghahn Books, 2015. In Preparation.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

    • Pearce MS, Pollard TM, McLean L, Kaye B, Blell MT, Parker L. . In: 4th World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). 2006, Educatorium, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD.

  • Reviews

    • Vears DF, Minion JT, Roberts SJ, Cummings J, Machirori M, Blell M, Budin-Ljosne I, Cowley L, Dyke SOM, Gaff C, Green R, Hall A, Johns AL, Knoppers BM, Mulrine S, Patch C, Winkler E, Murtagh MJ. . PLoS ONE 2021, 16(11), e0258646.
    • Porter G, Hampshire K, Dunn C, Hall R, Levesley M, Burton K, Robson S, Abane A, Blell M, Panther J. . Social Science and Medicine 2013, 88, 90-97.