Medical Anthropology at UCL

In The Midst Of COVID 19, The Search For The Missing In Mexico Continues

CAMILA RUIZ SEGOVIA Night had fallen at the coastal state of Veracruz, Mexico, when a group of men kidnapped Luis Guillermo, 29. He was an independent businessman by day and a DJ by night, according to Lucía, his mother. The date was June 28, 2013. Nearly seven years after he went missing, his whereabouts remains…

Experiencing Corona Virus in the Andes

LUCIA STAVIG A mix of huaynos, cumbia, and bird song still greet the sun in the Andean community in which I am riding out the month-long quarantine. At first glance, it might seem that not much has changed for this community in the age of COVID-19. Women in polleras still take their pigs and sheep…

The New Public Care: Seeking Coronavirus Truth through Networked Publics

MAGDALENA GÓRALSKA Before the pandemic begun the usual turn of events was like that: Beata, an accountant from a mid-size town in Poland has a health problem, or her husband has. She is not satisfied with medical advice given by doctors from either private or public healthcare sectors. She picks up her smartphone (she’s 60…

The Logic of ‘Advanced Deployment’ to Tackle COVID-19 in Taiwan

YI-CHENG WU I was planning to return to the UK to complete my PhD study before the coronavirus swept Europe. The Taiwanese government’s travel ban on medical personnel made my situation trickier. As a healthcare worker, it is embarrassing to ask for leave when all my colleagues are being urged to stay for the need…

Towards A Bright Post-Apocalypse

ERIC ORLOWSKI It was Walter Benjamin (1974 [1940]) who observed that we only experience history such as it is, when it stands still. However, he referred more so to the study of history, which was always the study of a mere snapshot of the true events, or indeed to the material ruins of the past:…

Biosocial Medical Anthropology in the Time of Covid-19. New Challenges and Opportunities.

SAHRA GIBBON, LEWIS DALY, AARON PARKHURST, CARRIE RYAN, GUL DENIZ SALALI AND ALEX TASKER As the events of the past few months concerning the coronavirus have unfolded across the globe, those of us who teach on a newly established MSc in Biosocial Medical Anthropology have become acutely aware of the immediate relevance of this unique…

Post-Pandemic Eating: What Will Food Culture Look Like After COVID-19?

KOMAL BHATIA I have six and a half kilos of dried lentils and beans in my pantry. This excludes the kilo of peppery papad, a half-used packet of gram flour, quarter kilo of soy granules, and a dense kilo of vadi (a dehydrated spicy lentil dumpling found in most Sindhi homes) that are awaiting their turn…

Biosocial Medical Anthropology in the Time of Covid-19. New Challenges and Opportunities.

Revisiting Defoe, or: Why History Matters in the Time of Covid-19

CATHERINE TOURANGEAU Why should history matter in times of crisis? The question is worth pondering. Historians and history teachers are not on the front lines, fighting for people’s lives or providing food and medical supplies. Even their valuable knowledge and understanding of the crises of the past can seem useless and impractical. Every epidemic is…

The Past 60-plus Days in China: Covid-19 Perspectives from a Wuhan-native

LI HONGLIN With the arrival of April, the weather in Beijing becomes particularly warm, and people in masks rush to the park enjoying the spring. Meanwhile in my hometown, Wuhan, after two months of extremely tough days this spring stands to be especially precious. The cities around Wuhan have begun to end the isolation, and…

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO COVID-19 PROJECT

Summaries of Responses From: Collecting COVID-19: A crowd-sourced digital ethnography of the COVID-19 Pandemic Question One: How do people find and share information online during a global pandemic? ‘Anthropological Responses to COVID-19’ will comprise six questions, each lasting a fortnight. These are posted on a website created by University College London’s Centre for Digital Anthropology….

Rapid Public Health Enlightenment (RPHE) to Curb the Continued Spread Of COVID-19 in Nigeria

S. AKINMAYỌWA LAWAL & JIMOH AMZAT As of Tuesday, 31st March 2020, the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria had risen to 135. A week ago, the total number of confirmed cases as at Tuesday 24th March 2020 was 44. The data shows a surge of over 100% of confirmed cases within…

“South Africa Suffering from Three Pandemics: COVID-19, Ignorance, Stupidity”

KEKETSO PEETE “… those things kill people who fly, us we don’t fly, we are here in Mzansi [South Africa] year in and year out” This was a statement that was made by an elderly man who was interviewed by an E TV news reporter, in the streets of Johannesburg, on the first day of…

COVID-19: A Simulacrum of the Climate Crisis?

HACER GÖREN 31st March 2020. Contrary to the once dominant optimism among the public that “Turkey is safe and secure”, COVID-19 has not skipped Turkey either. Yes, it is a single and “simple” virus that started to reinscribe not only Turkey but also the entire globe. Since 11th March 2020, when the first corona case…

God, health and COVID-19 in remote Papua New Guinea

MONICA MINNEGAL AND PETER DWYER The first COVID-19 case reached Papua New Guinea (PNG) on 13 March 2020, though it was several days before it was unambiguously confirmed. On 17 March the pandemic was declared a national security issue, and a State of Emergency came into effect on 24 March. By coincidence, in the week commencing Monday 16 March, members…

Global Distrust & the Future of Multilateralism: Reflection on International Relations and Covid-19

FATHI RAYYAN Most of us would be able to recall World War I and its catastrophic outcome that triggered the emergence of the International Relations (IR) discipline in 1919. However, we often overlook a pandemic outbreak that occurred at around the same time in 1918. The Spanish Flu, spread with astonishing speed around the world,…

Technologies of Public Security: Deploying Imaginary Borders

HARRY FLETCHER On the 23rd of January, I sat on the fourth floor of a packed-out library, writing my dissertation. My thesis was on building pandemic resilient airports, and the lessons we could take from the 2003 SARS pandemic (another coronavirus that spread globally as asymptomatic but infectious passengers transited through airports). My institutional email…

Brasil, A Quarentena Como Possibilidade: Um Diálogo Africano E Sul-Americano

ANA GRETEL ECHAZÚ BÖSCHEMEIER & PINGRÉWAOGA BÉMA ABDOUL HADI SAVADOGO A presente é uma reflexão a duas vozes entre pessoas com origens continentais diversas que moram no Brasil. Abdoul Hadi P.B. Savadogo é socioantropólogo, burkinabê-malinês, (Burkina Faso e Mali) atuando no âmbito dos Estudos Africanos. Ana Gretel é antropóloga, feminista, do noroeste de Argentina, trabalhando…

Vulnerability of the Indian Poor

JESSICA GHATODE The global economy seems to be entering troubled territories as the second wave of COVID-19 spread to countries which remained unaffected so far. The economic impact, now no more limited to China, is evidently slowing down other economies including the US economy. Crippling down of world’s two greatest economies is surely bad news…

Hope in the Time of Corona: Indonesia

GEGER RIYANTO We were supposed to have a family dinner. In three days, I will be departing back to Germany. I was coming home for a few weeks to Indonesia in the middle of writing my Ph.D. thesis. Suddenly, during the motorcycle ride to my family’s apartment, my body ached unbearably. My temperature shot up….