Anna Derhaeg (°2002) joins SHOC as a PhD student on the project “Negotiating consent: patient agency and surgery from a European perspective, 1900-2000” supervised by Jolien Gijbels.
Anna began her studies in history at KU Leuven, earning her bachelor’s degree in 2023 and her Master’s degree in 2024. For her master’s thesis she studied the use of anaesthesia in childbirth between 1880 and 1900, supervised by Kaat Wils. She focused on the agency of women in the birthing room and how anaesthesia could be used to bypass patient consent for procedures that doctors deemed necessary.
In her PhD research, Anna will further examine the relationship between doctors and patients by analysing consent practices and levels of patient agency from the late 19th century through the 20th century. Her work will continue to focus on the role of anaesthesia in negotiations over consent. She will use an intersectional approach, considering how factors such as gender, age and ethnicity influenced patients’ agency in negotiations with their doctors.