Author Archives: Bertrand Taithe

About Bertrand Taithe

Bertrand Taithe is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Manchester and a founder member of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute. He works on the history of humanitarian aid and of its representations. His most recent articles and books include L'Humanitaire s'exhibe—The Humanitarian Exhibition (Geneva, Georg, 2022) and "The Politics of Catholic Humanitarian Aid: Missionaries and American relief in Algeria 1942–1947," French History (2023). He is a co-investigator of the Researching the Impact of Attacks on Healthcare and Colonial and Transnational Intimacies projects, and Principal Investigator of the Wellcome Discovery Award "Developing Humanitarian Medicine: from Alma Ata to Bio-Tech, a history of norms, knowledge production and care (1978–2020)." For further details and the full list of publications see: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/bertrand.taithe

Introduction: History Writing and Attacks on Healthcare

April 29, 2024 by , and
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Abstract Since Médecins sans Frontières’ denunciations of the 2015 bombings of hospitals by the United States and Russia in Afghanistan and Syria, respectively, subsequent polemics have taken scholarly and policy debates about Attacks on Healthcare (AoH) in new directions and called on history to better understand their origins and wider long-term impacts. Despite increased calls for more rigorous data collection and research on the social, behavioral, psychological and economic impacts of AoH, recent international meetings organized in the wake of the fifth anniversary of the Continue reading → Continue reading →

“Like a Yam Between Two Stones”: Remembering Healthcare at War in Nepal (1996–2006)

April 29, 2024 by , and
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Abstract The Nepal civil war (1996-2006) opposed a rural Maoist insurrection and a succession of monarchical regimes and governments. Despite a shift in perception of the conflict post 9/11, the conflict remained largely internal to Nepal with limited international involvement. Over that same period, health indicators in most domains recorded significant improvements including in the areas most affected by the conflict. Building on human rights datasets of violent incidents and systematic oral history in three regions affected to varying degrees by the conflict, this article Continue reading → Continue reading →