New Books In Public Health

Europe's Laboratory: Climate and Health in Eighteenth-Century Russia (Cornell UP, 2025) is a history of eighteenth-century naturalists and physicians who were involved in the creation of a classification system for the people of the Russian Empire. These Enlightened scholars traveled through Russia describing its people, landscape, and customs. In an era when climate was seen as a significant factor affecting health and bodies, these men wondered: How did the Russians, a "cold" people—phlegmatic or melancholic, according to humoral theory—manage an empire?

The experiences and observations of doctors and scholars working within the Russian Empire contributed to advances in understanding and/or treating diseases like scurvy, smallpox, and more. Key insights were embedded in the travel writings and correspondences of colorful eighteenth-century figures who Romaniello brings to life with vibrant biographies. Medical knowledge was entangled with stories of culture and imperial politics as well. In Europe's Laboratory, Romaniello’s deft contextualization helps make sense of these intextricable branches of eighteenth-century taxonomies as he demonstrates that the Russian Empire was a part of global knowledge networks.
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Religion, Spirituality and Public Health: Competing and Complementary Epistemes (British Academy, 2025) focuses on exploring the role of different 'ways of knowing' or arriving at truth, i.e. epistemes, particularly those found in religious and alternative health milieus. While biomedical solutions offer a dominant narrative, these are articulated differently in global contexts. Moreover, individuals often draw upon alternative framings that are sometimes oppositional to and at other times engaged with directives from medical and governmental authorities. The focus of this volume is worldviews and epistemes that are often marginalised or rejected in dominant discourses -- from shamanism in Korea to African Pentecostalism in Britain, and from global online 'AntiVax' narratives to traditional Siddha medicine in South India. Detailed case studies explore the contested, competing and strategically aligned relationships between mainstream and marginal epistemes; between religious healing, spirituality and biomedicine; and between politics and belief. These explorations promote greater insight into how marginalised religious epistemes are employed. Which beliefs and practices are drawn upon to create meaningful and effective responses? And how can we better understand the depth and breadth of these reactions to design more successful public health strategies for future global health crises?

Links

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Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, capture national attention, most victims remain nameless, their stories untold. The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence (Beacon Press, 2025) reveals a disturbing truth about these cases: coroners and other death investigators are often complicit in obscuring the violent circumstances of in-custody deaths. Through rigorous research—including critical records analysis, public health studies, and interviews with victims’ families—this book unmasks the systemic failures within forensic medicine. Dr. Terence Keel shows how incomplete autopsy reports, mishandled medical documents, and strategically lost evidence effectively shield law enforcement from accountability.The Coroner’s Silence uncovers how the current system of death investigation operates as a mechanism of institutional safeguarding. By highlighting the structural powerlessness of coroners and their disconnection from the communities most affected by police violence, Dr. Keel demonstrates how bureaucratic processes can render human suffering invisible. True accountability requires more than procedural reform. It demands a fundamental reimagining of how we investigate, document, and understand deaths at the hands of state institutions. The Coroner’s Silence is a crucial intervention that challenges us to confront the deeply ingrained mechanisms that perpetuate systemic violence.

Our guest is: Dr. Terence Keel, who is an award-winning scholar, the founding director of the BioCritical Studies Lab, and a professor of human biology, society, and African-American studies at UCLA. He received fellowships from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health, and is the author of Divine Variations, and The Coroner’s Silence.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

The Criminal Record Complex

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

Carceral Apartheid

Stitching Freedom

Secrets of the Killing State

Freemans Challenge

Hands Up Don't Shoot

What Might Be

The Journal of Higher Education in Prison

Education Behind The Wall

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!
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For this episode, we are joined by Dr Shingisai Chando, a published academic and Research Fellow of the POCHE Indigenous Health Centre at the University of Sydney to unpack the question: what does it mean for healthcare systems to be culturally safe? A big question, but one Shingisai tackles with detail and depth. Dr Chando talks to us about how cultural competence changes in different health contexts and across different communities but emphasises the underlying issues of racism in the workplace, as well as the importance of trust, belonging, and true community engagement to build trust.

Produced by: Adubi Plange, Dr Amy McHugh, Sarah Mashman

Podcast Artwork: Zein Arif

Resources:

Below are some of Shingisai’s academic works related to this episode of the Cultural Competence Collective:

Article: Chando, S., Howell, M., Dickson, M., Jaure, A., Craig, J., Eades, S., Howard, K. (2024). Factors informing funding of health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: perspectives of decision-makers. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 30(5), PY24054

Article: Chando, S., Dickson, M., Howell, M., Jaure, A., Craig, J., Slater, K., Smith, N., Nixon, J., Eades, S., Howard, K. (2022). Delivering health programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: Carer and staff views on what's important. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 33(S1), 222-234.

Article: Chando, S., Howell, M., Young, C., Craig, J., Eades, S., Dickson, M., Howard, K. (2021). Outcomes reported in evaluations of programs designed to improve health in Indigenous people. Health Services Research, 56(6), 1114-1125

Mental Health Support Services:

For University of Sydney staff: CONVERGE

Converge offers multiple dedicated helplines for specialist services:

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https://wellmob.org.au/

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Between May 1 and May 22, 1863, Union soldiers marched nearly 200 miles through the hot, humid countryside to assault and capture the fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Upon its arrival, the army laid siege to the city for a grueling forty-seven days. Disease and combat casualties threatened to undermine the army’s fighting strength, leaving medical officers to grapple with the battlefield conditions necessary to sustain soldiers' bodies. Medical innovations were vital to the Union victory. When Vicksburg fell on July 4, triumph would have been fleeting if not for the US Army Medical Department and its personnel.By centering soldiers' health and medical care in the Union army’s fight to take Vicksburg, in The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War (UNC Press, 2025), Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette offers a fresh perspective on the environmental threats, logistical challenges, and interpersonal conflicts that shaped the campaign and siege. In doing so, Privette shines new light on the development of the army’s medical systems as officers learned to adapt to their circumstances and prove themselves responsible stewards of soldiers' bodies.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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