W&M Featured Events
[PAST EVENT] "Doctors With Borders: Syrian-American Medics and the Politics of Global Health" - Dr. Raina Sweis
Access & Features
- Open to the public
Please join us for our next Anthropology Department Brown Bag with Dr. Rania Kassab Sweis (The University of Richmond) on Wednesday, January 30, at noon in Washington 101
Doctors With Borders: Syrian-American Medics and the Politics of Global Health
In humanitarian studies, it is typically the white western doctor who stands apart as the cultural prototype or universal figure through which medical aid is delivered to vulnerable groups in the global south. My talk, by contrast, examines the experiences of members of a prominent Syrian-American medical aid organization. The members of this organization provide life-saving emergency care to millions of Syrians affected by the ongoing civil war, both inside Syria and in surrounding refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Drawing on over four years (2014-2018) of intermittent interviews and observations with these doctors, I suggest that they are positioned precariously within a global ?hierarchy of humanitarians? (Fassin 2013) that deems their lives less worthy of mobility and protection than others. In critically analyzing the unequal politics of humanitarianism that exists around the Syrian war today, my research complicates our understanding of who provides global aid, as well as the grounded medical humanitarian encounter itself in times of crisis.
Upcoming Brown Bags:
Wednesday, February 13, noon ? Kristin Wustholz, Chemistry W&M
Wednesday, February 20, noon ? Andrew Ward, Classics, W&M
Wednesday, March 13, noon ? Pamela Schug, Psychological Sciences, W&M
Wednesday, March 20, noon ? Leslie Cochrane, English & Linguistics, W&M
Thursday, March 21, 5pm ? Sutlive Lecture, Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Anthropology, Columbia University
Wednesday, April 17, noon ? Caroline Schuster, Australian National University