Centre for Global Health Policy

Ebola: The Challenges- African Studies Association Conference 2014

On the 10th of September the University of Sussex held a ‘creative round table’ as part of the ASAUK 2014 conference, in order to facilitate a symposium of academic thought on the West Africa Ebola crisis.

Collating the opinion of a diverse panel of researchers the discussion covered a wide range of subjects associated with the outbreak of infectious diseases.  The event questioned many key assumptions and narratives that have been made by the international press, reiterated the need for effective communication between social science, policy makers and institutions and identified the portentous role that social media increasingly plays for the people most in need of understanding what an epidemic means to them.

‘Ebola is real, many social scientists have a tendency to ignore it and we will ignore it at our peril’ emphasised Professor James Fairhead, panel chair and lecturer at the University of Sussex.

A full event summary including presentation recordings is available here.

 

Chair:
James Fairhead, University of Sussex

 

Panellists included:
Ann Kelly, University of Exeter
Melissa Leach, Director, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex
Audrey Gadzekpo, University of Ghana
Stefan Elbe, Director, Centre for Global Health Policy, University of Sussex
Melissa Parker, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 

 

Stefan Elbe, Director for Centre for Global Health Policy University of Sussex: A presentation on policy making and the role of the pharmaceuticals