Paper short abstract:

How can anthropology help public health students reflect on narratives and experiences of crises, and inform public health training in emergencies? This paper will explore lessons learnt from “pacing research” as a means to purposively bring awareness on the dissonant temporalities of crises.

Paper long abstract:

Framing a situation as a “crisis” enables exceptional politics and interventions, and produces accelerated temporalities. Anthropological research and its core element of ‘immersion’ can, at first, appear irrelevant at best, if not conflicting with a moral imperative of acting fast to save lives, especially in acute crises. To fit within framings of crises, researchers have received more and more requests for ‘rapid data collection tools’ (including rapid ethnographies), and space has opened-up for real-time engagement between researchers and policy makers. Enduring social structures, however, need to be accounted for in research, teaching and practice.

Postgraduate modules and training programmes on public health in emergencies are routinely offered through public health institutions. Students attending these classes have had exposure to macro-narratives on crises, some of them have first-hand experience implementing public health interventions or clinical care in national health systems and humanitarian agencies in emergencies, while others may have personal experiences of living in crises. How can anthropology teaching help students reflect on such narratives and experiences, and inform future public health thinking and action in context of crises?

This paper will explore the role(s) of anthropology to prepare public health professionals navigate and reimagine public health action in crises. It will look into the importance of “pacing research” as a means to purposively bring awareness on the dissonant temporalities in and of crises.