Is Health Activism a Collective Responsibility? by Beza Merid
During the tumultuous “repeal and replace” frenzy in the spring and summer of 2017, the US House of Representatives and Senate moved quickly to consider bills intended to…
Tag: Features
Who was Bobby Kennedy?
This post was submitted by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, professor of medical anthropology at UC Berkeley where she directs the doctoral program in Critical Studies in Medicine, Science and the…
In The Journals, May 2018 by Ann Marie Thornburg
We hope you find articles of interest in this month’s In The Journals selections. Happy reading! American Ethnologist Quantitative care: Caring for the aggregate in US academic population…
Digital Food Activism – a book review by Michelle Pentecost
Digital Food Activism Tanja Schneider, Karin Eli, Catherine Dolan and Stanley Ulijaszek (eds.) Routledge Series in Critical Food Studies, 2018, 234 pages A Swiss academic scans the…
Agitated children, turbulent trajectories: Towards a comparison between Europe and South America – a workshop report by Álvaro Jiménez Molina
This article describes the main discussions and contributions of the first workshop of the International Research Network on Disruptive Behaviours. The workshop was held at the “Centre for…
(Anti)Institutional Menses: Our Blood, Our Business by Andrea Ford
Photo courtesy of “Jane” Jane started us off by saying “I grew up in the US, so I could never count on having healthcare.” Jane (for whom I’m…
In the Journals, April 2018 by Aaron Seaman
Along with our normal roundup of articles, there are several special issues to note this month. The most recent issue of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience contains a special…
Diagnosis where? Testing Pigs and Humans for T. solium cysticercosis in Uganda by Rebekah Thompson
Two live pigs being transported to a local butcher in Mukono district, Uganda Taenia solium is a zoonotic disease shared between humans and pigs. Humans become infected with…
Splice of Life by Lisa Jean Moore
A Birthday Present Georgia, my middle daughter of three, is a combination of my DNA and identity release[1] donor #2817[2]. Unlike her sisters who both have the advantage…
Risk and utility in the governance of diagnostic testing: the case of genetic screening, 1960 to the present by Steve Sturdy
Routine collection of blood samples from neonates – often using so-called Guthrie cards (pictured) – began in the 1960s when a number of North American and European countries…
Humanitarian diagnostics for sleeping sickness in Uganda by Jennifer Palmer
Map of sleeping sickness RDT availability (red dots) in the north-western region of Uganda hosting refugees from South Sudan. In 2015, the majority of refugees in this region…
Gun Cultures Reflect Broader Changes in American Society by Joseph Henderson
Author’s Note: I originally wrote this article for my institution’s student-run literary magazine after the Parkland shooting. Our little community was engaged in passionate debate about “gun culture”…
Ultrasound as a diagnostic tool in Brazil: celebrating babies, blurring problems. by Ilana Löwy
This is a photograph of a publicity for a “street corner” obstetrical ultrasound in Brazil. It proclaims: “ultrasound examinations at low prices.” The advertised “low prices” can be…
Diagnostics without diagnosis: RDTs for Sleeping Sickness in Uganda by Shona Lee
Diagnosing sleeping sickness (also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT)) is complicated, requiring the alignment of clinical suspicion with serological, parasitological, and molecular confirm…
David Loher: Complicity or pragmatism? A labor movement and its fight against the asbestos industry
This post is part of a feature on “How Capitalists Think,” moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (University of Bergen) and Tijo Salverda (University of Cologne). This contribution…
Diagnosing trachoma for elimination by Emma Harding-Esch
WHO simplified grading system for trachoma diagnosis. These photographs are reproduced with permission from the WHO Programme for the Prevention of Blindness and Deafness Trachoma is the…
Kevin Poperl and Ida Susser: Inventing a technological commons: Confronting the engine of Macron
This post is part of a feature on “How Capitalists Think,” moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (University of Bergen) and Tijo Salverda (University of Cologne). This blog…
New Review Technologies: An Announcement and Invitation by Emily Yates-Doerr
This post announces the launch of a book. It is also an invitation. The book, The Ethnographic Case: Telling Stories, Shaping Knowledge, was conceived as a Somatosphere curated…
Laboratory capacity building and the open hardware movement by Louise Bezuidenhout
Through my work in African laboratories I am regularly made aware of the challenging equipment shortages faced by research laboratories in many low/middle-income countries (LMICs). This extends far…
ReEBOV: Developing an Ebola rapid diagnostic test at research ground zero by Imogen Bevan
Expired ReEBOV tests in a hospital laboratory in Sierra Leone. Photograph by Ann Kelly In June 2015, as Sierra Leone and Guinea was experiencing new surges in clusters…
Tijo Salverda: Aiming to keep capitalist accumulation in check: The role of the global land rush’s fiercest critics
This post is part of a feature on “How Capitalists Think,” moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (University of Bergen) and Tijo Salverda (University of Cologne). Following the…
Global Health Diagnostics: Workshop Summary by Shona Lee
On January 17th, 2018, participants from the UK, Europe, and India gathered in Edinburgh for “Investigating Diagnostic Devices in Global Health”, a workshop that also marked the launch…
Curious Affection by Eben Kirksey
A gigantic balloon—pink and glistening—billows up overhead. It is like a womb, or a tumor, filling the huge atrium at the entrance to Patricia Piccinini’s biggest show to…
The Testing Revolution: Investigating Diagnostic Devices in Global Health by Alice Street
Image by Alice Street in collaboration with Jennifer Littlejohn. The origins of laboratory medicine are often traced to the establishment of a small clinical laboratory in Guy’s Hospital,…