Alberto Morales: Science from Below. Multispecies Relations and Global Health Inequalities

Date
Mar 7 , 2024 

School of Advanced Study, Cen­tre for Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Stud­ies, Uni­ver­si­ty of London

„Sci­ence from Below: Mul­ti­species Rela­tions and Glob­al Health Inequalities”
Alber­to Morales (Drex­el Uni­ver­si­ty, USA)
7 March 2024
5–6.00pm GMT (UK time)
Online via Zoom

With cli­mate change on the rise and its impact on ecolo­gies, bio­di­ver­si­ty, and racial­ized geo­gra­phies, emerg­ing infec­tious dis­eases present a con­sid­er­able threat to pub­lic health and health secu­ri­ty glob­al­ly. Based on 18 months of field­work in Pana­ma City, Pana­ma, this talk high­lights the eco­log­i­cal and mul­ti­species rela­tions that fig­ure promi­nent­ly in glob­al health and nat­ur­al prod­ucts research. Nat­ur­al-prod­ucts sci­en­tists study the chem­i­cal prop­er­ties of “nat­u­ral­ly” occur­ring com­pounds in bio­di­ver­si­ty-rich regions of the world for poten­tial phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal devel­op­ments and bio­med­ical inter­ven­tions. This pre­sen­ta­tion focus­es on the poten­tials of mul­ti­species assem­blages in the reengi­neer­ing of biot­ic mate­ri­als beyond eco­nom­ic spec­u­la­tion. Specif­i­cal­ly, this talk explores mul­ti­ple forms of val­ue and val­ues in nat­ur­al prod­ucts research to map injus­tices, pow­er dif­fer­en­tials, and emerg­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties in glob­al health. In today’s post-COVID-19 world, drug research is more crit­i­cal than ever, and the diver­si­ty of those who par­tic­i­pate in cre­at­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings is even more crucial. 

All are wel­come to attend this free sem­i­nar. You will need to reg­is­ter in advance to receive the online join­ing link:

https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/events/latin-american-ethnography-seminar‑4