About event
Online seminar co-hosted by the TransAsiaSTS network & Deakin Science and Society Network
Title:
Can Vaccine Nationalism and Vaccine Diplomacy Coexist?
Abstract:
The global demand for Covid-19 vaccines has sparked a discourse that science nationalism is incompatible with “global health.” In a time of pandemic crisis, fears of national sequestration of biotech technologies are intensifying. I suggest, however, that the biosciences as state project and as global public good are complexly entangled and politically fraught for donor and recipient nations alike.
While pandemics are a global health threat, the technology, production, deployment and acceptance of vaccines are invariably a matter of politics. I will highlight the gradients between the owning/making and the giving; the trade-offs for low-income countries; and whether global health entities Covax & the Quad lessen or produce new segregations in health access.
Professor Ong will be in discussion with Professor Emma Kowal.
About the speaker:
Aihwa Ong is Professor Emerita in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes on contemporary forms of sovereignty, governance, cities, citizenship, bioscience, and conceptual art in the Asia-Pacific. Her works on factory women, elite migrants, war refugees, neoliberal go-getters, opportunist professionals, bio scientists, and experimental artists illuminate their diverse roles in making new worlds.
Ong’s concepts “Chinese transnationalism,” “flexible citizenship,” “graduated sovereignty,” and “global assemblages” have been influential in interdisciplinary fields. She is the author of several books, including Fungible Life: Experiment in the Asian City of Life (2016). Her writings have been translated into European languages, Bahasa-Indonesian, Japanese, and Chinese.
Ong’s website with more info can be found here
About the discussant:
Emma Kowal is Professor of Anthropology and Deputy Director of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. She is a cultural and medical anthropologist who previously worked as a medical doctor and public health researcher. Her research interests lie at the intersection of anthropology, STS and Indigenous studies.
About the chair:
Chinar Metha is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, India. She has been trained in Information and Communication Technology and worked as a web developer before pursuing research in media studies. Her research interests include Feminist Science & Technology Studies, Digital Cultures, and Human-Computer Interaction.
Watch the seminar:
Seminar will be available to stream on YouTube live. Access using the live link: https://youtu.be/sPiXoagCBnI
Q&A with the speaker to follow. To send questions/participate in the chat, you’ll need to sign-in using a YouTube account.
The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the SSN YouTube channel after the Livestream.
If you have any questions, please send to emma.kowal@deakin.edu.au
Event Contact:
ssn-info@deakin.edu.auShare