Tanja Ahlin is an anthropologist of health and technology and a science and technology studies (STS) scholar. As a Research Fellow at Leiden University, awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), she is investigating technology acceptance and resistance through the case of animal-shaped social robots in elder care. Her project, Paw Support, aims to support personalized long-term care, making space for new technologies as well as non-technological solutions to good care in times of scarce resources.

Tanja is currently also an assistant professor at the postgraduate school ZRC SAZU, where she teaches anthropology of technology, and an acting lecturer at KU Leuven. Previously, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the “Human Factor in New Technologies” at the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. Tanja earned her PhD from the University of Amsterdam. She has a master’s degree in health and society in South Asia from Heidelberg University (Germany), a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Athabasca University (Canada), and a bachelor’s degree in translation (Hons., English, French, Slovenian) from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Tanja’s book, Calling Family: Digital Technologies and the Making of Transnational Care Collectives (Rutgers University Press, 2023), explores how digital technologies shape family care at a distance when living in the same place is not the most feasible option.