Therese Blanchet has been conducting research in Bangladesh since 1978. Her anthropological field work took her from rural villages to urban slums, from haors to highlands, from brothels to mazars. Her rich and unusually broad experience of Bangladesh society over 17 years is reflected in her writings. She currently works for Radda Barnen, where she is leading a multidisciplinary team conducting studies on children and childhood. She is author of Women, Pollution and Marginality: Meanings and Rituals of Birth in Rural Bangladesh (Dhaka: UPL, 1984).