Anne Emanuelle Birn

I am Professor of Critical Development Studies (UTSC) and of Social and Behavioural Health Sciences (Dalla Lana School of Public Health) at UT St George. My research explores the history, politics, and political economy of international/global health, with particular interests in Latin American health and social justice movements, child health/rights, and philanthrocapitalism. My books include: Marriage of Convenience: Rockefeller International Health and Revolutionary Mexico (2006); Comrades in Health: US Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home (2013); Oxford University Press’s Textbook of Global Health (2017); and Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America (2020). I also study how extractive industries affect health, using a critical political economy framing.

My contribution to University Worlds is to examine the ethical responsibility of universities that accept donor funds from mining-related and other health-harming corporate sources, and to consider how universities can be made accountable. I am also interested in exploring “best practices” in equitable and participatory university governance, especially from a “Majority World” perspective.