Annie Wilkinson
April 22, 2020 — People
Anthropologist and Health Systems Researcher
Annie Wilkinson is an anthropologist and health systems researcher. She conducts research on zoonotic disease; epidemic preparedness and control; drug resistance; and urban health. She has worked extensively in West Africa, especially Sierra Leone, and within emergency humanitarian and epidemic response. Her recent research explores institutional arrangements around health and disease in informal urban settlements in Sierra Leone. She is interested in the politics of knowledge which influence how people understand, organise, make decisions and act to improve health or address infectious threats.
She co-founded the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform during the West African Ebola epidemic which provided rapid response advice and research into critical social and historical dimensions of the epidemic (and received the ESRC’s International Impact Prize in 2016). She was a member of the social science sub-group of the UK government’s SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies) for the West African Ebola epidemic. Building on these lessons, she co-leads the ‘Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform’, which mobilises social science networks and evidence for emergency preparedness and response.