Staff Profile

I'm a biosocial medical anthropologist. I have worked on a range of projects using qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate health, reproduction, and technology in the UK, the Nordic region, Latin America, South Asia, and East Africa. My research draws from in-depth ethnography to examine intransigent and often invisible structures of injustice. 

My current research projects include:

• Kone Foundation-funded 'Technology, Ethics and Reproduction: Controversy in the Era of Normalisation'
• ESRC-funded 'What is 'Equivalence' in Police Custody Healthcare?'

• Blell M, Liu S-JS, Verma A. 'A one-sided view of the world': women of colour at the intersections of academic freedom. International Journal of Human Rights 2022, Epub ahead of print.
• Mulrine S, Blell MT, Murtagh MJ. Beyond trust: Amplifying unheard voices on concerns about harm resulting from health data-sharing. Medicine Access @ Point of Care 2021, 5, 1-11.
• Murtagh MJ, Machirori M, Gaff CL, Blell MT, de Vries J, Doerr M, Dove ES, Duncanson A, Hastings Ward J, Hendricks-Sturrup R, Ho CWL, Johns A, Joly Y, Kato K, Katsui K, Kumuthini J, Maleady-Crowe F, Middleton A, Milne R, Minion JT, Matshaba M, Mulrine S, Patch C, Ryan R, Viney W. Engaged genomic science produces better and fairer outcomes: an engagement framework for engaging and involving participants, patients and publics in genomics research and healthcare implementation. Wellcome Open Research 2021, 6, 311.
• Vears DF, Minion JT, Roberts SJ, Cummings J, Machirori M, Blell M, Budin-Ljosne I, Cowley L, Dyke SOM, Gaff C, Green R, Hall A, Johns AL, Knoppers BM, Mulrine S, Patch C, Winkler E, Murtagh MJ. Return of individual research results from genomic research: A systematic review of stakeholder perspectives. PLoS ONE 2021, 16(11), e0258646.
• Blell M, Hunter MA. Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing's Red Herring: “Genetic Ancestry” and Personalized Medicine. Frontiers in Medicine 2019, 6, 48.
• Murtagh MJ, Blell MT, Butters OW, Cowley L, Dove ES, Goodman A, Griggs RL, Hall A, Hallowell N, Kumari M, Mangino M, Maughan B, Mills MC, Minion JT, Murphy T, Prior G, Suderman M, Ring SM, Rogers NT, Roberts SJ, Van der Straeten C, Viney W, Wiltshire D, Wong A, Walker N, Burton PR. Better governance, better access: practising responsible data sharing in the METADAC governance infrastructure. Human Genomics 2018, 12, 24.
• Blell M. British Pakistani Muslim Masculinity, (In)fertility, and the Clinical Encounter. Medical Anthropology 2018, 37(2), 117-130.
• Murtagh MJ, Minion JT, Turner A, Wilson RC, Blell M, Ochieng C, Murtagh B, Roberts S, Butters OW, Burton PR. The ECOUTER methodology for stakeholder engagement in translational research. BMC Medical Ethics 2017, 18(1), 24.
• Weston G, Lawson JF, Blell M, Hayton J. Anthropologists in Films: “The Horror! The Horror!”. American Anthropologist 2015, 117(2), 316-328.
• Blell MT. Menopausal symptoms among British Pakistani women: a critique of the standard checklist approach. Menopause 2015, 22(1), 79-87.
• Simpson B, Blell M, Hampshire K. Moral Pioneers: Pakistani Muslims and the take-up of assisted reproductive technologies in the North of England. In: Simpson B, Hampshire K, ed. Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Third Phase: Global Encounters and Emerging Moral Worlds. London: Berghahn Books, 2015. In Preparation.
• Hampshire K, Iqbal N, Blell M, Simpson B. The interview as narrative ethnography: seeking and shaping connections in qualitative research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 2014, 17(3), 215-231.
• Porter G, Hampshire K, Dunn C, Hall R, Levesley M, Burton K, Robson S, Abane A, Blell M, Panther J. Health impacts of pedestrian head-loading: A review of the evidence with particular reference to women and children in sub-Saharan Africa. Social Science and Medicine 2013, 88, 90-97.
• Blell M, Pollard TM, Pearce MS. Predictors of age at menarche in the Newcastle thousand families study. Journal of Biosocial Science 2008, 40(4), 563-575.
• Pearce MS, Pollard TM, McLean L, Kaye B, Blell MT, Parker L. Birth weight as a predictor of breast tissue density. In: 4th World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). 2006, Educatorium, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD.
• Cooper R, Blell M, Hardy R, Black S, Pollard TM, Wadsworth MEG, Pearce MS, Kuh D. Validity of age at menarche self-reported in adulthood. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2006, 60(11), 993-997.