Interdisciplinarity in Global Health – Which role for the social sciences?
The research field of global health benefits from the plurality of perspectives, both internationally and in the growing global health landscape in Germany. Indeed, calls for interdisciplinarity are omnipresent in global health – a call which often refers to building bridges between the life sciences and the social sciences. This roundtable seeks to foster dialogue across disciplinary cultures and asks: When is interdisciplinarity useful, and when does it fail? Which working styles, institutional constellations, and methods facilitate genuine inter-disciplinary collaboration? At which career stage should interdisciplinarity begin – already at the master’s level, during graduate school, or rather once a researcher has reached seniority in a specific discipline? Finally, is interdisciplinarity too harmonious a goal, in a policy field marked by intricate social and political conflicts?
Nitsan Chorev is the Harmon Family Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Brown University.
Christian Drosten is the director of the Institute for Virology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Jean-Paul Gaudillière is research director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and Professor of History of Sciences at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).
Karin Geffert is a medical doctor and research associate at the Pettenkofer School of Public Health at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
The discussion will be moderated by Tine Hanrieder, head of the WZB Research Group Global Humanitarian Medicine.
This event is part of the workshop “Medical dominance in global health: Professional authority, morality, and the politics of expertise”. It is organized by the WZB Research Group Global Humanitarian Medicine.
Our event location is wheelchair-accessible. If you need support, please e-mail: veranstaltungen [at] wzb.eu