Urban epidemiology

I have a longstanding interest in public health, urban epidemiology, and corporeal geographies.  I initially explored these themes in relation to the development of modern cities through the provision of water infrastructure and other basic services.  I have also developed the question of disease in relation to the resurgence of  tuberculosis, the history of malaria, and the presence of complex boundary phenomena such as multiple-chemical sensitivity.  In my current work on urban nature I am interested in expanded conceptions of other-than-human geographies that extend to zoonoses and neglected facets of urban entomology.

There is significant scope for a critically reworked political ecology, in combination with new insights into the independent agency of nature, to explore evolving relationships between human health and the urban environment. Although existing studies within environmental history and other fields have emphasized the role of infrastructure networks and other measures against the threat of water-borne disease these insights can be extended to other socio-ecological and epidemiological dimensions of urban space.

Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images