Susann Huschke received her Ph.D. at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin in 2012. Between 2008 and 2011, she conducted field research on undocumented migration and health in Germany. Her book Kranksein in der Illegalität (2013) focuses on the subjective illness experiences of undocumented Latin American labor migrants in Berlin, while at the same time critically analyzing local and national structures of unequal access to health care. Since 2008, she has also been a member of the Berlin Office for Medical Care for Refugees (Büro für medizinische Flüchtlingshilfe), a non-governmental lobby organization that provides healthcare for undocumented migrants. As a medical anthropologist, she aims to understand diverse forms of suffering as a fundamentally social experience, going beyond events of physical illness and connecting subjective experiences of suffering with shifting forms of legal status, migration histories, living and working conditions, and social relationships.

Her current research project explores how mobile female sex workers in Northern Ireland ensure their health, handle illness episodes and deal with emotional, social and mental suffering. It addresses their subjective experiences with criminalization, stigmatization and barriers to accessing health services, for example due to lack of legal immigration status.

Books

2013 Kranksein in der Illegalität. Undokumentierte Lateinamerikaner/-innen in Berlin. Eine medizinethnologische Studie. Bielefeld: Transcript.

Book Chapters

2011 Die Grenzen humanitärer Versorgung. Beispiele aus einer Feldforschung mit illegalisierten Latina/os. In: Mylius, Maren; Wiebke Bornschlegl; Andreas Frewer (Eds.): Medizin für "Menschen ohne Papiere". Menschenrechte und Ethik in der Praxis des Gesundheitssystems. Göttingen: V+R unipress, pp.157–172.

2009 Fragiles Netz - Krankheitserfahrungen undokumentierter Latinas in Berlin. In: Falge, Christiane; Andreas Fischer-Lescano und Klaus Sieveking (Hrsg.): Gesundheit in der Illegalität. Rechte von Menschen ohne Aufenthaltsstatus. Schriftenreihe des Zentrums für Europäische Rechtspolitik an der Universität Bremen (ZERP). Band 55. Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlag. pp. 45-61.

Journal Articles

2011 (with Joanna Twarowska) Legal, aber nicht versichert. Medizinische Versorgung von neuen EU-BürgerInnen. In: Dr. med. Mabuse 189 (1): 55–57.

2010 Versorgung von Menschen ohne Papiere: „Den Letzten beißen die Hunde". In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt 9: 404-406.