Tag Archives: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Africa once again has an Ebola outbreak. At this point, it is centered in the so-called Greak Lakes region, with the largest number of cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda has also seen several cases. Sadly this is not new news. But it takes place in the context of a weakened World Health Organization, with the US withdrawal, and a stark memory of the Covid outbreaks. It also is exacerbated by the shuttering of USAID and severe cuts in health funding from the Trump Administration. The United States is insisting that any American that tests positive for the virus would be treated outside of the country, provoking protests in East Africa such as in Kenya. So is the Ebola outbreak a potential pandemic? What has been the most effective means to treat these kinds of outbreaks. And how does it influence the current intense discourses about health care delivery and wellness in the United States. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Heather Wipfli is Professor and Clark Leadership Chair in Global Health at the University of Maryland. She is the co-author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty. And she has extensive experience in Uganda.
Lawrence Gostin is Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and is the Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. He is the co-editor of Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future and Global Health Law & Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World (2023). And he is working with the WHO and the Intergovernmental Negotiation Body (INB) to draft a Pandemic Treaty. His opinion posted in Washington Post titled – “Don’t tell Trump, but the U.S. is still a WHO member” and in The Hill where he co-authored “America’s wrong and unlawful response to Ebola must pivot“.
Amesha Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the author of Recognition and Management of Infectious Bio-threats and Emerging Pathogens and AI and the Future of Medical Countermeasures to Protect Against Biological Threats. He has served on US government panels tasked with developing guidelines for the treatment of plague, botulism, and anthrax in mass casualty settings, the system of care for infectious disease

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

Health, Infectious Diseases, Public Health and Safety, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Role of Food in History -/- Extractive industries and their economic and environmental affects – November 25, 2018

November 24, 2018 host

First, the role of food in history- as a weapon of war, of empire and of building societies. With Tom Standage. [ dur: 21 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Tom Standage is a journalist and author of The Edible History of Humanity.

Then, what is the relationship between minerals such as oil, diamonds and gold and conflict, authoritarianism and poverty? This week’s scholars have spent years studying how these so-called extractive industries, mining and drilling, impact people’s lives, their governance and the environment throughout the world. How can countries so rich in mineral wealth remain mired in so much poverty? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Jeffery Mantz is Program Director of Cultural Anthropology at the National Science Foundation. His publications include Blood Diamonds of the Digital Age: Coltan and the Eastern Congo, Do Cellular Phones Dream of Civil War? e Mystication of Production and the Consequences of Technology Fetishism in the Eastern Congo and How a Huckster Becomes a Custodian of Market Morality: Traditions of Flexibility in Exchange in Dominica
Michael Ross is a Professor of Political Science at UCLA. His books include The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations and Timber Booms and Institutional Breakdown in Southeast Asia.
Suzana Sawyer is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. Her books include Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador and The Politics of Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations and the State.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Dec. 29th, 2013

December 28, 2013 host

In this hour, the conflict in South Sudan has claimed 1000 lives, according to a United Nations humanitarian official. Leaders in Africa are working to negotiate a peace agreement between South Sudan’s government and the rebels. But South Sudan, as the world’s newest country, faces many more crises. We speak with a nurse from the organization Doctors Without Borders, or Medicin sans Frontiere, who has recently returned from South Sudan. [ dur: 20 mins. ]

Mariam Czech , Nurse MSF.

Then, what is the relationship between minerals, such as oil, diamonds, gold, and conflict, authoritarianism and poverty? This week’s scholars have spent years studying how these so-called extractive industries—mining and drilling—impact people’s lives, their governance, and the environment, throughout the world. How can countries so rich in mineral wealth remain mired in so much poverty?

Jeffery Mantz, Professor of Anthropology, George Mason University;
Michael Ross, Professor of Political Science, UCLA; Author of The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations
Suzana Sawyer, Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis. Author of Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Scholars’ Circle – Ebola Outbreak, WHO and US CDC Policies on Infectious Diseases – June 7, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – Role of Food in History -/- Extractive industries and their economic and environmental affects – November 25, 2018

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Dec. 29th, 2013

By Maria Armoudian