Dr Anna ISKRA is a medical anthropologist whose research explores the intersections of mental health, therapeutic cultures, and the governance of emotion in contemporary China. She critically examines how rapid social change, particularly within urban environments, shapes psychosocial wellbeing, self-improvement practices, and the politics of care. Her work employs multi-sited ethnography to investigate the local adaptation of global mental health frameworks and their profound impact on emotional life, family dynamics, and future aspirations.

Dr ISKRA's award-winning doctoral work on China’s Body-Mind-Spirit (shen xin ling) milieu has been published in premier journals such as Signs, Ethos, and China Information. Dr ISKRA's scholarly curiosity has also led her to trace the influx of Indian New Religious Movements into China, analyse the Crazy English movement as a form of self-cultivation, and, in a recent project, explore the transformation of mental health infrastructures under China's Zero-COVID policies.

A collaborative scholar, Dr ISKRA has contributed to multiple research projects funded by highly competitive bodies including the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. This work has extended her reach into the transnational circulations of healing practices and the development of indigenous psychologies.

In the classroom, Dr ISKRA brings eight years of experience and a passion for relationship-driven, experiential learning. She has developed and taught courses spanning medical anthropology, urban studies, gender, as well as spirituality and religion, consistently bridging theory and practice through innovative, field-based modules.

• PhD in Anthropology, The University of Hong Kong

• Double MA and BA in Anthropology and Chinese Studies, The University of Warsaw