EGHI Lecture Series


Though much discussion and research have been dedicated to decolonizing global health, there is still much progress to be made to address power imbalances, improve the lives of people and communities, and turn what we’ve learned in global health work into positive experiences and sustainable impact.

Emory Global Health Institute hosted the first lecture series focused on defining the topic and deconstructing the influences of colonialism, religion, capitalism and culture that can be barriers to achieving global health equity. The second series looked at the benefits of equitable global health partnerships in academia.

This four-part series took a close look at some of Emory University’s regionally-based global health partnerships. These discussions help create tangible actions to decolonize and reconstruct our own practices at Emory while offering insight and lessons applicable at other academic institutions working in global health. 

Series Objectives:

  1. Increase awareness of the role of colonization in academic global health partnerships in the U.S. and in low- and middle-income countries
  2. Create a platform for partners to share challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations for more equitable engagement in global health
  3. Compile best practices for global health partnerships at Emory University

Forum Videos:

  1. Ensuring equitable partnerships with Ethiopia | Jan 19, 2022
  2. Ensuring equitable partnerships with US Indigenous Peoples | Feb 25, 2022
  3. Ensuring equitable partnerships with Brazil | March 25, 2022
    Portuguese Language Version

    English Language Version
  4. Ensuring equitable partnerships with India | April 18, 2022

Resources

Resources on Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.

Books for Historical Context:

  • Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
  • The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, Abridged Edition, by Francis Paul Prucha
  • Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann
Ted Talks/Videos/Documentaries:
Native Land App and Website - Find out Whose Land You're On:
 
The Trail of Tears + Forced Removal (Georgia and Surrounding States):
 
TV Shows:
Reservation Dogs (Hulu)
Music:
The Bridge (album) by Frank Waln (Spotify, iTunes, etc.)
A Tribe Called Red (band)
Supaman (Hip Hop Artist and ceremonial dancer)

Background on History of Colonialism in Global Health  

Anti-Racism and Decolonization in Global Health - General

 Anti-Racism and Decolonization in Global Health - Funding/Money/Aid

 Anti-Racism and Decolonization in Global Health - Research

 Anti-Racism and Decolonization in Global Health - Data/Precision Science

References  

Abimbola, S. (2019) ‘The foreign gaze: Authorship in academic global health’, BMJ Global Health, 4(5), pp. 1–5. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002068.

Adams, V. (2016) Metrics: What Counts in Global Health (Critical Global Health: Evidence, Efficacy, Ethnography). Duke University Press.

Ashuntantang, G. et al. (2021) ‘Reform of research funding processes could pave the way for progress in global health’, The Lancet Global Health. The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, 9(8), pp. e1053–e1054. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00207-2.

Billaud, J. (2021) ‘Politics of Data’, Journal of the Association for Political and Legal Anthroplogy. Available at: https://polarjournal.org/2021/09/03/politics-of-data/ (Accessed: 3 December 2021).

Birn, A.-E. (2014) ‘Philanthrocapitalism, past and present: The Rockefeller Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the setting(s) of the international/global health agenda’, Hypothesis, 12(1), pp. 1–27. doi: 10.5779/hypothesis.v12i1.229.

Bornstein, D. (2018) ‘Opinion | A Call to Modernize American Philanthropy - The New York Times’, New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/opinion/philanthropy-minorities-charities.html (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

Braun, L. (2014) ‘Introduction: Measuring Vital Capacity’ in Breathing Race into the Machine : The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics. University of MInnesota Press.

Daffé, Z. N., Guillaume, Y. and Ivers, L. C. (2021) ‘Anti-racism and anti-colonialism praxis in global health—reflection and action for practitioners in US academic medical centers’, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 105(3), pp. 557–560. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0187.

Datta, R. (2018) ‘Decolonizing both researcher and research and its effectiveness in Indigenous research’, Research Ethics, 14(2), pp. 1–24. doi: 10.1177/1747016117733296.

Davis, S. (2020) The uncounted: politics of data in global health, International Affairs.  Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1093/IA/IIAB067.

Downs, J. (2021) Maladies of empire : how colonialism, slavery, and war transformed medicine. Harvard University Press. Available at: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971721 (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

Edom, G. (2018) Book Review – Why We Lie About Aid by Pablo Yanguas | | Africa at LSE, London School of Economics. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2018/05/18/book-review-why-we-lie-about-aid-by-pablo-yanguas/ (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

Farmer, P. et al. (2013) Reimagining Global Health.

Hommes, F. et al. (2021) ‘The words we choose matter: recognising the importance of language in decolonising global health’, Lancet, 9. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00197-2.

Kishore, R. (2021) ‘How imperialism, slavery, and war shaped epidemiology’, The Lancet. Elsevier Ltd, 398(10309), pp. 1396–1397. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02216-9.

Lancet (2020) ‘Decolonising COVID-19’, The Lancet Global Health, 8, p. e612. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30123-6.

Mogaka, O. F., Stewart, J. and Bukusi, E. (2021) ‘Why and for whom are we decolonising global health?’, The Lancet Global Health, 9(10), pp. e1359–e1360. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00317-X.

Naidu, T. (2021) ‘Says who? Northern ventriloquism, or epistemic disobedience in global health scholarship’, The Lancet Global Health. The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, 9(9), pp. e1332–e1335. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00198-4.

Redfield, P. (2017) ‘Metrics: What Counts in Global Health. Vincanne Adams, ed., Durham: Duke University Press, 2016, 258 pp.’, Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Wiley, 31(3). doi: 10.1111/MAQ.12363.

Richardson, E. T. (2019) ‘On the coloniality of global public heath’, Medicine Anthropology Theory, 6(4), pp. 101–118. doi: 10.17157/mat.6.4.761.

Richardson, E. T., Farmer, P. and Recorded Books, I. (2020) Epidemic illusions : on the coloniality of global public health. MIT Press. Available at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/epidemic-illusions (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

Schwab, T. (2021) ‘The Gates Foundation Avoids a Reckoning on Race and Power’, The Nation, 6 October. Available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/gates-foundation-colonialism/ (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

Vernon, G. (2020) ‘Books: Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction: Is Global Health a Human Right?’, The British Journal of General Practice. Royal College of General Practitioners, 70(690), p. 34. doi: 10.3399/BJGP20X707597.

Villanueva, E. (2021) Decolonizing wealth: indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance. 2nd edn. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Available at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/588996/decolonizing-wealth-second-edition-by-edgar-villanueva/ (Accessed: 2 December 2021).

This five-part series introduced learners to the history of global health, focusing on the influence of colonialism, religion, capitalism, and culture. Following the series, we compiled clips from the series to create video modules that have been used by the American Academy of Pediatrics and are available for use below. During the entirety of the series, we had about 900 attendees from 46 countries.

Series Objectives:

  1. To acknowledge the Eurocentric conception of fabricated class, caste, religious and ethnic superiority ​
  2. To work collectively to dismantle these hierarchies and rebalance global health

Forum Videos:

  1. Colonial entanglements and the history of global health
  2. The role of religion and culture in shaping global health
  3. Decolonizing global health research partnerships
  4. Decolonizing global health education
  5. Disrupting and rebuilding global healthcare systems

Video Modules

Resources

Christianity’s Role in United States Global Health and Development Policy: To Transfer the Empire of the World (Routledge, 2019) - "The new century begins: 1900-1948" (Chapter 3) and "Not “either/or” but “both/and:” On Seeing International Health and Development as a Tragic Profession… and Why That Should Give Us Hope" (Chapter 8) by Dr. John Blevins

“Gender, Disability and the Postcolonial Nexus,” Wagadu, Journal of Transnational
Women's and Gender Studies. volume 4, Summer 2007 - (Chapter 10) by Dr. Pushpa Parekh

Costello Anthony, Zumla Alimuddin. Moving to research partnerships in developing countries 

Lavery JV and IJsselmuiden C. The Research Fairness Initiative: Filling a critical gap in global research ethics [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]Gates Open Res 2018, 2:58

Global health 2021: who tells the story? - The Lancet Global Health

Decolonizing Global Health Education: Rethinking Institutional Partnerships and Approaches, Eichbaum, Quentin G. MD, PhD, MPH, MFA, MMHC; Adams, Lisa V. MD; Evert, Jessica MD; Ho, Ming-Jung MD, PhD; Semali, Innocent A. MD, MSc, PhD; van Schalkwyk, Susan C. MPhil, PhD Academic Medicine: March 2021 - Volume 96 - Issue 3 - p 329-335