Our Core Team

INGA WINKLER

Inga Winkler (she/her) is Associate Professor in Human Rights at Wageningen University and leads the PERIODS project. Her research examines menstruation, stigma, social mobilization, and policy-making. She has published widely on menstruation and human rights and co-edited the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Previously, she taught at Central European University and Columbia University.

JANICE LAZARUS

Janice Lazarus (she/her) is an interdisciplinary feminist researcher working on reproductive (in)justice. She earned her PhD in Gender and Sexuality Studies from Birkbeck, University of London, where she examined caste and gender in shaping stigma around unmarried women's abortion in India. In the PERIODS project, she leads the case study on trans and non - binary menstruators, advancing intersectional understandings of menstrual stigma and human rights.

DEEPTHI SUKUMAR

Deepthi Sukumar (she/her) is a Dalit activist and National Convenor of Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), where she has worked for over two decades to eradicate manual scavenging and support the liberation and rehabilitation of affected women. A founding member of SKA's National Feminist Platform, she advances menstrual justice through intersectional, community-based feminist organising across India.

ASHLY JOSSY

Ashly Jossy (she/her) is an intersectional feminist researcher from Kerala and a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research. She leads the India-based case study of the PERIODS project, examining gender, caste, and menstruation through Dalit-led menstrual justice movements, grounded in community-based participatory research and Dalit feminist knowledge.

SEMKELISIWE NCUBE

Semkelisiwe Ncube (she/her) is a qualitative researcher specializing in menstrual health and gender justice in under - resourced contexts. She holds degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the University of Cape Town. Her work explores menstrual experiences among women in Khayelitsha. In the PERIODS Project, she leads the South Africa case study, examining how informality and patriarchy shape menstruation, lived realities, and social mobilization.

VIVI BRASSOI

Vivi Brassoi (she/her) is a Romani feminist activist and human rights lawyer specializing in Roma rights and strategic litigation. She holds a JD and an LLM in European Human Rights from ELTE University, Budapest. Within the PERIODS project, she leads research with Romani communities, examining how identity, gender, and menstruation intersect, and how stigma affects access to human rights and grassroots movement - building.

Affiliate Researchers

Isabela Hummelgen (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in Legal Studies at Central European University. A socio-legal researcher, she works on human rights, gender politics, and critical menstruation studies. Her PhD examines abortion rights politics in Brazil, centring feminist movements' engagement with state institutions and menstrual health and justice policy debates.
https://legal.ceu.edu/people/bela-hummelgen

Isabela Hummelgen

Erica Selznick (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Law Group at Wageningen University & Research. She holds an MSPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research, part of the EUmetriosis consortium, explores lived experiences of self-managing endometriosis, grounded in health equity and destigmatisation.
https://research.wur.nl/en/persons/erica-selznick/

Erica Selznick

Madilene B. Landicho (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman and a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research. Her research explores menstrual self-care practices among single women in selected Philippine communities, focusing on how women care for themselves and one another.
https://anthro.upd.edu.ph/landicho-madilene/

Madilene B. Landicho

Marina Sakac Hadzic (she/her) is an external PhD candidate in the Law Group at Wageningen University & Research. With a background in anthropology, she uses ethnographic methods to study menstrual activism and lived experiences in Serbia, comparing menstruators' experiences from socialist Yugoslavia to neoliberal Serbia.
https://research.wur.nl/en/persons/marina-sakac-hadzic/

Marina Sakac Hadzic

Sam Schwickert (she/her) studied Physics at the University of Hamburg and Climate Physics & Sustainability Science at the University of Kiel. She is founder of Spielköpfe and a research associate at BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg. Her PhD examines how menstrual movements are shaped and absorbed by capitalist and patriarchal systems.
https://www.b-tu.de/en/fg-technik-umwelt-soziologie/team/academic-staff/samantha-schwickert

Sam Schwickert

Advisory Group

Anel du Plessis (she/her) is Professor and Chair in Urban Law and Sustainability Governance at Stellenbosch University. Her work bridges urban law, human rights, and environmental sustainability. Within the PERIODS Project, she advises on research design and co-supervises doctoral research on menstruation in informal settlements in South Africa.

Angela Kocze (she/her) is Associate Professor, Chair of the Romani Studies Programme, and Academic Director of the Roma Graduate Preparation Programme at Central European University. Her research examines intersections of gender, ethnicity, and class. Within the PERIODS Project, she co-supervises doctoral research on menstruation among Roma communities, focusing on power, ethnicity, and structural injustice.

Chris Bobel (she/her) is Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and past president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. A leading scholar in critical menstruation studies, she authored The Managed Body and New Blood, and co-edited the Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. She advises the PERIODS project.

Jackie Dugard (she/her) is Senior Lecturer in Human Rights and Political Science at Columbia University and Visiting Professor at University of the Witwatersrand. Co-founder of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, her work examines law, inequality, and gender-based violence. She advises the PERIODS project on the South Africa case study.

Lauren Houghton (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Trained in anthropology, she uses mixed methods to study how culture shapes hormonal processes, including puberty and menstruation. She has led pioneering research on trans and gender-diverse menstrual experiences and advises the PERIODS project in this area.

Maya Unnithan (she/her) is Professor of Social and Medical Anthropology at the University of Sussex and founder of CORTH and the Narrating Blood network. Her work bridges reproduction, global health, and human rights. She advises the PERIODS project on India and on reimagining gender, rights, and reproductive justice discourse.

M. Sivakami (she/her) is Professor at the School of Health Systems Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her research on gender, health, and demography uses mixed methods to address health inequities. She co-edited the Handbook on Sex, Gender and Health: Perspectives from South Asia and co-supervises caste and menstruation research within the PERIODS Project.