Incorporating pandemic public health, social inequalities, geopolitics, conspiracies and beyond, COVID-19 vaccines find themselves at the centre of the most significant debates of our time. As anthropologists and social scientists we have important voices that need to be heard on this matter, and are once again placed in the unique position of watching noteworthy global events unfold before our eyes.

As with the initial pandemic responses covered extensively by our blog series of 2020, it is clear that the global vaccine roll-out will look very different internationally- as we have already begun to see. We call for medical anthropologists and social scientists to reflect on the response, reception, and wider discourses surrounding the vaccine roll-out in diverse settings. Submissions can focus on any topic related to the multiple different vaccines, from hesitancy, to inequalities in delivery and roll-out, conspiracies, politics, personal experiences, and much more.

Owing to the timeliness and importance of this fast-developing topic, we will be launching multiple new initiatives at UCL Medical Anthropology and invite you to contribute and participate. We will host a vaccine-focussed blog series and a live seminar series running in the Summer term (details to be released shortly).

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY VACCINE BLOG SERIES

We are launching the blog series call ‘Vaccines in View’ on a rolling basis, and seek articles that touch upon any aspect of COVID-19 vaccines and the social sciences. These can be from members of graduate or postgraduate community senior or  junior academics and/or professionals of any career stage, so long as the focus is the vaccine from a social science perspective.

Please submit a 600-1000 word article along with a short bio to Rebecca Irons (Rebecca.irons@ucl.ac.uk)

For any queries about the seminar or blog series, please get in touch with the ‘Vaccines in View’ Series Co-ordinators: Sahra Gibbon (s.gibbon@ucl.ac.uk); Jo Cook (Joanna.cook@ucl.ac.uk); Aaron Parkhurst (a.parkhurt@ucl.ac.uk); David Napier (d.napier@ucl.ac.uk); Rebecca Irons (Rebecca.irons@ucl.ac.uk)