Pandemic DiscoursesIndia China Institute2021-11-09T21:23:02-05:00

Pandemic Discourses

A Global Contagion Demands Global Perspectives

This blog aims to foster an interdisciplinary and global dialogue on the historical, social, and political dimensions of the pandemic. It will provide diverse perspectives from different corners of the world, and especially the Global South, bringing to the forefront variable and contested understandings of disease, science, and society.

The blog is a collaboration between the India China Institute and the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at The New School. It is co-edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Manjari Mahajan, and Mark W. Frazier.

Pandemic Discourses welcomes contributions from authors whose work addresses themes and questions related to COVID-19 responses, practices, and policies at various scales, from community to global. Details on submission can be found here.

Politics of Expert Advice: Constraining Debate in India’s Management of COVID-19

Rama Baru

|2021-03-17T15:30:28-04:00March 16th, 2021

The Indian public health response to COVID-19 has been sidelining expert advice and scientific debate in favor of a political agenda, writes Dr. Rama Baru, professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

India’s Vaccine Diplomacy

Biswajit Dhar

|2021-04-08T22:51:08-04:00March 4th, 2021

Against the trend of vaccine nationalism, India is emerging as one of the major global suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines, writes Dr Biswajit Dhar, professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Nagayo Sensai, Father of Public Health in Japan: Some Lessons for Managing COVID-19

Eimi Watanabe

|2021-03-12T10:54:51-05:00February 25th, 2021

The historical legacy of Nagayo Sensai and the Japanese hygienic practice and mentality of “eisei” illustrates the importance of non-pharmaceutical interventions and the necessity of establishing a strong local public health infrastructure for managing COVID-19, writes Eimi Watanabe, former Assistant Secretary General and Director of the UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy.

The Business of Black Death

|2021-02-19T15:32:17-05:00February 12th, 2021

COVID-19 is emblematic of how the global public health industry is complicit in the reproduction of “the African tragedy,” writes Takiyah Harper-Shipman, an assistant professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College and public health major Kim Bako.

Nothing to Learn from East Asia?

Jomo KS

|2021-02-19T15:33:23-05:00February 2nd, 2021

An unwillingness to learn from East Asian countries has been a hallmark of the Western response to the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Dr. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a senior advisor at the Khazanah Research Institute and the first United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development.

Futures Present: The Pandemic and the Crisis of Expertise

Gil Eyal

|2021-02-19T15:34:47-05:00January 27th, 2021

The varied response to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crisis of expertise and power dynamics within different approaches to public health, writes Gil Eyal, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and author of The Crisis of Expertise (Polity, 2019).

A Crowd of Mourners

Golrokh Nafisi

|2021-02-19T15:36:48-05:00January 20th, 2021

Golrokh Nafisi, a contemporary Iranian artist, brings a new perspective on the impact of COVID-19 on collective mourning, grief, and political identity in Iran.

Vaccine Chimeras

Manjari Mahajan

|2021-02-22T15:57:59-05:00December 13th, 2020

The overwhelming prioritization of vaccines takes attention and resources away from the complex political, social and infrastructural investments that underlie a resilient public health response, writes Manjari Mahajan, Associate Professor of International Affairs at The New School.

Argentina: The Convergence of COVID-19 and Institutional Violence

|2021-02-22T16:32:58-05:00November 29th, 2020

The coronavirus shutdown in Argentina has revealed systemic institutional violence and discrimination against indigenous and lower-class communities, write Silvia Hirsch and Andrea Mastrangelo, social scientists with the University of San Martín, Argentina.

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