Dissertation Research: One Hundred Years of Malaria: a History of Malaria and its Control in Twentieth Century Colombia

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This is a Science and Technology Studies dissertation improvement grant that examines the history of malaria and efforts to control it in twentieth century Colombia. Funds from the grant will support travel, room and board expenses, as well as some expenses for equipment. Through archival research in three cities in Colombia, and the archives of the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the National Archives and Records Administration and the National Library of Medicine, and oral history interviews with participants in malaria control in Colombia, the researcher will analyze the way in which the spread of the disease and its control have been shaped by factors beyond biology, such as an evolving economy, settlement of the agricultural frontier, political upheaval, rural warfare and migratory movements. This dissertation emphasizes the local dimensions of international disease control projects, and especially the reinterpretation of strategies that took place as the implementation of international programs proceeded in a country-specific context. This research contributes to the recent surge of studies that aim to uncover the various strategies that have been followed in the past to deal with malaria, in which Latin America is underrepresented, and Colombia almost entirely overlooked. A critical, historical examination of past malaria control efforts in a major country in Latin America, against a background of the internationalization of anti-malaria public health that occurred in the twentieth century, will help inform current public health debates about how to deal with the continuing burden of malaria in the twenty-first century. This research contributes to the study of the culture and politics of international health, revealing assumptions about development as well as the ideological underpinnings of modernization and civilization of .third world. countries. It is also part of the larger history of tropical medicine, and of the new critical studies of science and medicine in relation to imperialism, in which Latin America has been remarkably absent. This research will also contribute to the field of environmental history, and more particularly, to the links between environmental history and the history of public health. Results from this research will be made available in Colombia through the creation of a website that can be used as an educational resource.