London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Decolonising Global Health – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (DGH-LSHTM) and the LSHTM Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre invite you to a panel discussion centred around Eugene Richardson’s recent book Epidemic Illusions. While he mainly draws on his experience working on the front-line to combat the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, this insight on the coloniality of public health and the underlying inequities that exist, are relevant in the face of any global public health emergency. He asserts that the biggest epidemic he has encountered is not Ebola but the epidemic of illusions – transmitted by the coloniality of knowledge production.

Eugene will be in conversation with Tammam Aloudat and Angus Tengbeh, chaired by Lioba Hirsch. We will hear a summary of the book’s key arguments and thoughts from the panellists, then the author meets his critics. Audience members will be invited to ask questions throughout the session.

Speakers

Dr Eugene Richardson, Harvard University 

Dr Richardson is a physician-anthropologist and an Assistant Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He previously served as the clinical lead for Partners In Health’s Ebola response in Kono District, Sierra Leone, where he continues to conduct research on the social epidemiology of Ebola virus disease and COVID-19. He also worked as a clinical case management consultant for the WHO’s Ebola riposte in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo. More recently, he was seconded to the Africa CDC to join their COVID-19 response. His overall focus is on biosocial approaches to epidemic disease prevention, containment, and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this effort, he is chair of the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice. 

Dr Tammam Aloudat, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Tammam Aloudat is a Syrian physician and public health specialist. He has worked over the past two decades for the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and MSF. His work ranged from treating patients in humanitarian settings to policy, advocacy, and research. He has researched and written on access to medicines, migrant health, palliative care in humanitarian settings, epidemics, humanitarian ethics, and health equity. He organises, writes, and teaches, under the banner of decolonising humanitarian aid and global health, to tackle the power asymmetry and discrimination affecting patients and their communities. Tammam is also a co-founder of Action to Decolonise Global Health ActDGH. 

Angus Fayia Tengbeh, Queen Margaret University

Angus is a PhD candidate at the Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, where his research is focused on the Political Economy of Health reforms. He previously worked as a Research Fellow for the LSHTM on the EBODAC project in Sierra Leone, and as a Social Scientist for the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone on the EBOVAC-Salone vaccine trial in Sierra Leone. 

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