Cold War, Public Health and Brazil: exploring transnational epistemic communities (1955-1978)

• Grant number: 21/01491-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2022
• End date: March 01, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Felipe Pereira Loureiro
• Grantee: Nathalia Candido Stutz Gomes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to explore the activities of Brazilian public health experts in transnational epistemic communities during the Cold War, specifically between 1955 and 1978. We will develop this study using three World Health Organization (WHO) milestone events of this period: the Malaria Eradication Program (1955), the Smallpox Eradication Program (1959), and the Alma-Ata International Conference on Primary Health Care (1978). These events mobilized experts with multiple conceptions of health and development, who reacted (sometimes favorably, others in opposition) to the premises and implementation methods applied in technical cooperation projects in this area. This research intends to shed light on the mechanisms involved in networks of knowledge linked to different projects of society. Also, this study aims to explicit the role, the limitations, the potential, and the local and international impacts of the actions of these actors from the so-called "Third World". Besides employing public and private sources of Brazilian technicians, we will explore WHO archives and documents of American experts directly associated with the public debate put on technical cooperation in the field of international health.