Dutch Scholar Conducts Research at PHS

Marieke van Eijk, MA, is a medical anthropologist currently visiting PHS to conduct her PhD research comparing transgender health care practices in the United States and Western Europe. Van Eijk seeks to understand how different processes and systems in transgender health care, such as health care funding and interactions between clients and care providers, affect transgender-specific health care delivery and expressions of gender identities and body modifications. She said, “An important question I am exploring is ‘Why would a person look different in terms of gender identity and physical outcomes if they transition in Western Europe compared with the United States?’”

It has taken five years and a shift toward the validity of transgender research for van Eijk to make it to the United States. She said, “I feel really grateful to be in this clinic with so many people doing great work. The intellectual discourse and great clients make it very rewarding and challenging. I have seen so many transgender clients come in with such different needs, and they are treated equally with honor and respect. I simply would not be able to do this work without PHS.”

Her project is supervised by Walter Bockting, PhD, and professor of cultural anthropology Niko Besnier from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The project is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and from the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR).

Bockting is the coordinator for the Transgender Health Services program at PHS. He illuminates the importance of van Eijk’s work in the global context of transgender healthcare, “There has been a paradigm shift in the field regarding our conceptualization of transgender identity and health, with implications for the approach to transgender care. The University of Minnesota has been on the forefront of developing new approaches to treatment which are able to account for greater diversity in gender identity and expression. This change has largely been in response to community involvement in our services. This is something we consider particularly important given the debate about whether or not gender dysphoria is a mental disorder and the related requirement of an evaluation by a mental health professional in order to access hormone therapy or surgery. We have worked hard to develop practice guidelines that are empowering. Part of what Marieke's research will do is offer an in-depth analysis of our approach to care, not only from the perspective of how our providers interact with clients, but also by examining how the system in which both providers and clients operate affects health care delivery and outcome. We expect that the findings of this research will assist us in gaining further insight and improving the quality of our services to the transgender community. The fact that Marieke is doing this research cross-culturally will enhance her ability to illuminate the role of the health care system, social climate, and culture in the nature of care, treatment outcome, and patient satisfaction.”

Before she embarked upon this research project, van Eijk was an instructor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Amsterdam for six years. Her areas of interest are transgender issues, health, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural and medical anthropology. Her current research endeavor is grounded in her research findings of two MA theses, both of which she completed cum laude. Van Eijk studied gender studies and political science at the department of political science, and religion studies at the faculty of humanities at the University of Amsterdam. She will work at PHS until June 2009.