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Ann Kelly

Professor Ann Kelly

Professor of Anthropology & Global Health

Research interests

  • Politics
  • Biomedical and life sciences
  • Medicine

Biography

Ann H. Kelly is a Professor in Anthropology and Global Health. She serves on the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for Ebola Vaccines and Vaccination. She is also on the Editorial Board of Economy & Society, Cultural Anthropology, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications and Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

An anthropologist by training (Cambridge University, 2007), her ethnographic work focuses on the socio-material conditions that structure the production of global health knowledge, and the local ecologies of labour that circumscribe its circulation and use. She is currently collaborating on number of transdisciplinary collaborations at the interface of infectious disease control, health system strengthening and global outbreak response.

Her work has received support from a wide range of funders, including the Wellcome Trust, the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust. Recent work has appeared in Cultural Anthropology, Social Studies of Science, Social Science and Medicine, Economy and Society, American Ethnologist and Medical Anthropology.

Ann is currently completing a manuscript, Pragmatists in the Tropics, with Javier Lezaun under contract with Duke University Press. The book explores the past, present and potential future of global health though the lens of mosquito control. It draws upon our experience working with medical entomologists in Africa and Latin America to advance a ‘tropicalized’ version of pragmatism, a new way of inquiring into the interplay of knowing and doing in relation to pathogens, vectors, and disease.

Research

  • Emergency research and transitional research practices
  • Politics of global health research
  • STS of Africa
  • Global health anthropology
  • Social science of vector-control 
  • Multispecies ethnography and zoonotic disease
  • Critical global health of laboratory science

Ann has addressed a number of substantive topics, from mosquito control programmes in urban and rural contexts to emergency clinical trials during the recent West African Ebola outbreak.

In addition to working with a range of entomologists, biologists, parasitologists, public health experts and geneticists, she is currently working with a group of sustainable architects, urban designers and landscape artists in an effort to ‘hack’ fundamental paradoxes of mosquito rearing, collection and release.

Teaching

7SSHM Critical Global Health

PhD supervision

Ann is happy to supervise students looking to study in her area of expertise.

Further details

See Ann's research profile

    Research

    CMP Logo-72dpi
    Culture, Medicine & Power research group

    Delving into the interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.

    kslp_3
    Stroke in Sierra Leone

    Stroke in Sierra Leone (SISLE) is a research group aiming to improve outcomes for stroke patients in Sierra Leone.

    News

    King's academics selected as members of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton

    Professor Ann Kelly and Dr Kriti Kapila were selected as 2023-24 members of the Institute which is a leading centre for theoretical research in sciences and...

    Professor Ann Kelly (left) and Dr Kriti Kapila (right)

    COVID-19 vaccine rollout demands a truly global approach

    Dr Ann Kelly makes a case for improved global health collaboration in the latest WORLD: we got this podcast, stressing a purely national approach will leave...

    People walking towards a lit up vaccine vial

    A public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of COVID-19 must focus on lesson-learning, not political accountability

    A new report urges the UK to hold an expert-led inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic, which prioritises lesson-learning over political...

    COVID-19 information brochure from the UK government

    Events

    10Jun© Rain Wu. This is an AI-assisted image created with the support of Midjourney.

    Bat Night Market

    Step outside your comfort zone and into a night market of the future - a ticketed promenade performance at Science Gallery London for LIFT 2024

    Please note: this event has passed.

    15Febzika book1

    Book launch: 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'

    Launch of a book by Professor Ilana Löwy, exploring health disparities and reproductive injustice revealed by the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

    Please note: this event has passed.

    18Maymosquito under microscope

    The Detinova Technique: Global Health in the Shadows of Soviet Entomology

    This event with Professor Ann Kelly recounts the global health trajectory of a Soviet method of mosquito dissection.

    Please note: this event has passed.

    17JunBBBT Main 780x440

    Build Back Better Together WORLD: we got this podcast Live Episode

    WORLD: we got this podcast Live Episode

    Please note: this event has passed.

    30JunAge of Health US Map

    Diagnosing the problem: what the failure of the US to develop and deploy COVID-19 diagnostics tells us about global health

    This webinar, led by Dr Ann Kelley, will explore what the failure of the US to develop and deploy COVID-19 diagnostics tells us about global health.

    Please note: this event has passed.

    Features

    Partnerships, Power, Potential: GHSM on from 10

    This exhibition takes a look at the research being undertaken by GHSM academics and students across the world.

    GHSM on from 10 photo (1)

    A new public health order: engineering vaccine equity

    Dr Ann Kelly, Dr Nele Jensen and Professor Andrew Barry discuss global health and equity as part of the Build Back Better Together essay series.

    G7 Summit Flags

    Preparing Africa for COVID-19: Learning lessons from the Ebola outbreak

    Lessons learnt from the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone show the importance of investing in laboratory capacity has never been more critical.

    Ebola testing credit Olivia Acland

      Research

      CMP Logo-72dpi
      Culture, Medicine & Power research group

      Delving into the interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.

      kslp_3
      Stroke in Sierra Leone

      Stroke in Sierra Leone (SISLE) is a research group aiming to improve outcomes for stroke patients in Sierra Leone.

      News

      King's academics selected as members of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton

      Professor Ann Kelly and Dr Kriti Kapila were selected as 2023-24 members of the Institute which is a leading centre for theoretical research in sciences and...

      Professor Ann Kelly (left) and Dr Kriti Kapila (right)

      COVID-19 vaccine rollout demands a truly global approach

      Dr Ann Kelly makes a case for improved global health collaboration in the latest WORLD: we got this podcast, stressing a purely national approach will leave...

      People walking towards a lit up vaccine vial

      A public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of COVID-19 must focus on lesson-learning, not political accountability

      A new report urges the UK to hold an expert-led inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic, which prioritises lesson-learning over political...

      COVID-19 information brochure from the UK government

      Events

      10Jun© Rain Wu. This is an AI-assisted image created with the support of Midjourney.

      Bat Night Market

      Step outside your comfort zone and into a night market of the future - a ticketed promenade performance at Science Gallery London for LIFT 2024

      Please note: this event has passed.

      15Febzika book1

      Book launch: 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'

      Launch of a book by Professor Ilana Löwy, exploring health disparities and reproductive injustice revealed by the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

      Please note: this event has passed.

      18Maymosquito under microscope

      The Detinova Technique: Global Health in the Shadows of Soviet Entomology

      This event with Professor Ann Kelly recounts the global health trajectory of a Soviet method of mosquito dissection.

      Please note: this event has passed.

      17JunBBBT Main 780x440

      Build Back Better Together WORLD: we got this podcast Live Episode

      WORLD: we got this podcast Live Episode

      Please note: this event has passed.

      30JunAge of Health US Map

      Diagnosing the problem: what the failure of the US to develop and deploy COVID-19 diagnostics tells us about global health

      This webinar, led by Dr Ann Kelley, will explore what the failure of the US to develop and deploy COVID-19 diagnostics tells us about global health.

      Please note: this event has passed.

      Features

      Partnerships, Power, Potential: GHSM on from 10

      This exhibition takes a look at the research being undertaken by GHSM academics and students across the world.

      GHSM on from 10 photo (1)

      A new public health order: engineering vaccine equity

      Dr Ann Kelly, Dr Nele Jensen and Professor Andrew Barry discuss global health and equity as part of the Build Back Better Together essay series.

      G7 Summit Flags

      Preparing Africa for COVID-19: Learning lessons from the Ebola outbreak

      Lessons learnt from the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone show the importance of investing in laboratory capacity has never been more critical.

      Ebola testing credit Olivia Acland