Anna Harris: A Making In Creative Medicine
Published on
August 14, 2026
From growing up amidst Tasmania’s rugged landscape to completing her academic training in Melbourne and eventually arriving in snowy Maastricht, a new article in the university magazine explores the work Anna does and where it comes from.
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From growing up amidst Tasmania’s rugged landscape to completing her academic training in Melbourne and eventually arriving in snowy Maastricht, Anna Harris seems to embody a distinctive diversity, reflected not only in the places she has lived but also in the work she does. A new article in the university magazine explores some of the background to Anna's work and how it influences the Upcycled Clinic project...
Truth be told, it is difficult to define Harris with a single label. This medical trained Australian divides her time between research, craft-based making, and even administrative tasks. Maastricht University itself describes her in an article as the "Tasmanian Maker”, an attempt to capture the complexity of a figure who defies easy categorization.
Anna was born in Tasmania into a household where making was central. Her mother—an art teacher's assistant—and her father—an architect—instilled in her an interest in cultivating creativity from a very young age. After graduating in Medicine in Tasmania, she moved to Melbourne, where she later earned a PhD in Medical Anthropology. Years later, she relocated to Maastricht with her husband, and in 2025, she joined Maastricht University as a full professor and she is also a founding member of the Maastricht Young Academy.
One of the best examples of the diversity that defines Anna is the Upcycled Clinic Project, for which she serves as Principal Investigator. Born from a clear commitment to interdisciplinarity, the project brings together a diverse range of experts, including specialists in design, globalization, and medical anthropology. The combination of these disciplines aims to create space for improvisation, imagination, and creation within the hospital environment, focusing on repurposing: giving a second life to materials and resources to reduce hospital-generated waste.
Anna makes medicine, research, and creation one same path of addressing how to transform what already exists to discover new possibilities.
If you would like to read more about the Upcycled Clinic’s principal investigator, click on the “About the article” bar.
