Professional background: Social worker/pedagogue

Educational background: Pedagogical Anthropology (master) and specialized within organizational anthropology and development in welware institutions.

Research methods: Specialized in ethnographical field work, which primarily includes qualitative data collection methods, especially participant observation.

Focus areas: My research interests are within normality, health and inequality, and is especially focused on people who are sick or are viewed as sick. This includes sick people's options for actions, practices and experiences, seen in the light of the healthcare system's institutional logics, norms and power struggles.​

Projects: I'm currently working on a ph.d. project, which investigates how people with lung cancer live an everyday life while they are sick, with focus on the uneven access to cancer rehabilitation and possibilities of support in life with lung cancer. The project is financed by UCSF and is enrolled under the research group 'Medicine, Culture and Society', Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Collaboration partners /network: EXHALE, Center for Cancer and Health, Copenhagen (CKSK); Department of lung cancer and head/throat cancer, Rigshospitalet, University of Praxeology, Bergen. ​Project is partially funded by The Danish Cancer Institute.

​Publicati​ons​​

1. Erlik M, Missel M, Quist M, Timm H. Coming-around: living with lung cancer on the nether side of rehabilitation in Denmark. Med Anthropol 2025 Aug 11:1-14. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2025.2540532. PMID: 40787752​. Epub ahead of print.​​
   
2. Erlik M, Missel M, Quist M, Timm H. Coming-around: living with lung cancer on the nether side of rehabilitation in Denmark. Med Anthropol 2025:1-14. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2025.2540532.
   
3. Aamann IC, Erlik M. Sundhed, kropsvægt, klasse. Dansk Pædagogisk Tidsskrift 2024(4):6-21.
   
4. Erlik M, Timm H, Larsen ATS, Quist M. Reasons for non-participation in cancer rehabilitation: a scoping literature review. Support Care Cancer 2024;32(6):346. doi: 10.1007/s00520-024-08553-9.
5. Aamann IC, Erlik M. ​‘Am I that bad?’: Mi​ddle-class moralism and weight stigma towards parents of children with higher ​weight. Child Soc 2023;37(6):1737-1753. doi: 10.1111/chso.12779.
   
6. Erlik M. Vægtens magt: hvad sker der, når vi lader BMI diktere sundhed?​​ Diætisten 2020;28(168):11-1​3.​