In an increasingly connected world where pressing public health challenges circumvent national boundaries and undermine the capacity of states to respond in isolation, the Global Health and Development Sub-Section of the Development Sociology section of the ASA brings together scholars interested in issues related to global health.

Currently, substantial public health challenges loom around the world, including but not limited to the need to improve access to vaccinations; to address ongoing problems of poverty, malnutrition, and issues related to the social determinants of health; to promote maternal and child health; to address health disparities; to control infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria; to address the growing challenges posed by non-communicable diseases; and to strengthen fragile healthcare systems and improve access to healthcare and essential medicines.

The Sub-Section aims to serve as a focal point for study of these and other issues, including the relationship between government and donor spending and different health outcomes; the response to public health challenges by communities, states, international organizations, social movements, and NGOs; the impact of globalization and neoliberalism on health and approaches to healthcare; and the role of culture and politics in issues related to global health.

It recognizes that a wide variety of theoretical approaches and methodological tools may be brought to bear on the issues. It aims to bring together scholars who share interests in global health for discussion that will help to build a community around the study of global health, will enhance and enrich our knowledge and scholarship through the sharing of information, and will in turn help to shape and develop this emerging field.

As a means to promote these objectives, the Sub-Section hosts an easy-to-use listserv, on which members may have conversations and share scholarly information related to global health, including news, jobs, syllabi, events, and links to relevant scholarly work.
This year, some exciting new activities are planned, including a Mini-conference on Global Health at the 2019 Eastern Sociological Society meetings and an ASA pre-conference on global health in August 2019, jointly organized by the Sociologists’ AIDS Network and the Global Health and Development Interest Group. In addition, the journal, the Sociology of Development, plans to run a Special Issue on Global Health in January 2019, which will include a literature review of the field as well as some exciting new empirical articles.

To subscribe to the Google Group, globalhealthsoc@googlegroups.com, you can contact Shiri Noy at snoy(at)denison(dot)edu or Siri Suh at jssuh(at)brandeis(dot)edu to be added to the listserv. Further, we have assembled a list of members with expertise across an array of issue areas, including contact information and brief bios for media and other relevant inquiries. The list can be viewed here.

For more information or to contact the coordinators, please contact Shiri Noy or Siri Suh at the emails listed above.

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