Janette Davies holds a masters degree in social anthropology from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Medical Anthropology and PhD in anthropology and health studies from Brunel University. During the late 1970s and 1980s she worked as a nurse/midwife on rural health development projects in Bolivia and Bangladesh and in UNHCR refugee camp on the Thai/Cambodian border. Her anthropological research on issues of health and illness in developing countries has led to studies of the impact of HIV/Aids in Zambia, and ageing from cross cultural perspectives in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. Her current research focuses upon illness and ageing and is linked with the University of Georgia, at the Centre for the Study of Caucasus and Black Sea Region. She is currently Research Fellow here. Recent publications include ‘Necessary in-Betweens: Auxiliary Workers in a Nursing Home Hierarchy’ in Maynard, K., Medical Identities: Healing, Well Being and Personhood, (Berghahn 2007). She is Research Associate at International Gender Studies Centre and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.