‘In pursuit of well-being’
Cultural Encounters Team Member Amisah Bakuri will defend her PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam on December 22nd 2021. Her PhD thesis is an anthropological study focused on the pursuit of well-being among Somali-Dutch and Ghanaian-Dutch people residing in the Randstad area of the Netherlands
In The Netherlands (and in global public health), religion is often considered as problematic in relation to sexuality. Amisah Bakuri moves beyond this unidimensional understanding of the role of religion, and unravels the varied ways that religion informs people’s choices in multidimensional, non-exclusionary and at times contradictory ways. Her research has focussed on the practices and approaches of Ghanaian-Dutch and Somali-Dutch people in their pursuit of sexual well-being.
Looking beyond sexual health, a widely used term by medical professionals, using the notion of sexual well-being enables Bakuri to consider all aspects of people’s sexuality regarding medical, physical, emotional, mental, social and religious well-being or fulfillment by involving and studying various domains of religious sensibilities.
The full PhD thesis can be found here: https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=88277ee9-2f32-49d9-a05b-3565999eb969