Annual Review - University of Toronto Scarborough

for a healthy PoPUlation
a holistic Policy for health
PRoFeSSoR ANNe-eMANUeLLe BIRN,
DePARTMeNT oF SoCIAL SCIeNCeS
DID yoU KNow that lasting progress
in international health has historically
depended on strong social welfare systems?
or that the small country of Uruguay was
instrumental in putting the child-rights
approach to community well-being on
the international agenda? For Anneemanuelle
Birn – Canada Research Chair
in International Health and UTSC Professor
of Social Sciences – these little-known
facts from history hold invaluable lessons
for the modern debate on health policy.
“what makes for a healthy society?” asks
Birn. “History tells us that public health
is best achieved when investments are
accompanied by policies that encourage
social and political equality.”
“Anne-Emanuelle Birn's path-breaking research on international health
has demystified much of the ‘given wisdom’ about the history and current
condition of public health and medicine worldwide. She has emerged
as a leading historian currently writing about international health.”
Dr. howard waitzkin, Distinguished Professor, University of New Mexico
Right, a conference
announcement
reflects Uruguay's
burgeoning role in
the international
public health
sphere during the
early 20th century.
The dominant model of global health today
is driven by technological interventions
and is concerned mainly with disease
eradication. “My research is critical of
this approach,” says Birn. “Technology
without redistribution results in many
of our efforts being misguided.”
Using an historical, comparative framework
in her research, Birn examines how politics,
prevailing paradigms and power relations
shape the international health field. She
instills this approach in her students, many
of whom are enrolled in UTSC’s renowned
International Development Studies Co-op
program. In the IDS co-op, undergraduate
students spend eight to 12 months working
in developing countries, where they experience
first-hand the small successes and ongoing
challenges of development and learn to
critically assess what makes some programs
effective and why others fail.
“It’s not that vaccines and medicines
aren’t important,” notes Birn. “They are.
But they don’t work in isolation. we can’t
ignore the role of social, political and
economic conditions in enabling human
beings to flourish.”
24 UNIVeRSITy oF ToRoNTo SCARBoRoUgH