Sanjoy Bhattacharya
Research: Histories of infectious disease control, including imperial, national and international elimination and eradication programmes. Histories of vaccine research and development, testing and deployment, public and private distribution, and hesitancy and advocacy. The worldwide control and eradication of smallpox in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on programmatic variation and adaptation across diverse political, administrative and socio-cultural contexts. Use of these histories in contemporary health policy planning, delivery and representation in relation to infectious disease outbreaks and epidemic crises.
Sanjoy is Co-Director of the Centre for Global Health Histories at the University of York: https://www.york.ac.uk/history/global-health-histories/
Sanjoy is the Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories: https://www.york.ac.uk/history/global-health-histories/about/who-collaborating-centre/
See https://www.york.ac.uk/history/staff/profiles/bhattacharya/ for more information.
Relevant publications include:
Expunging Variola: The Control and Eradication of Smallpox in India, 1947-1977 (Orient Longman India: New Delhi and Sangam Books UK: London, 2006)
Fractured States: Smallpox, Public Health and Vaccination Policy in British India, 1800-1947 (Orient Longman India: New Delhi and Sangam Books UK: London, 2005). I am the researcher and primary author of this monograph (with Dr Mark Harrison and Professor Michael Worboys)
Mental Health: Past, Current Trends and Futures (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2017). Co-edited with Philip Kerrigan, Alexander Wade, Magali Romero Sa and Samantha Peel
Leprosy: A Short History (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2016). Co-edited with Alexander Medcalf, Monica Saavedra and Magali Romero Sa
Health For All: The Journey to Universal Health Coverage (Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi, 2015). Co-edited with Alexander Medcalf, Hooman Momen, Monica Saavedra and Margaret Jones
Tropical Diseases: Lessons from History (Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi, 2014). Co-edited with Alexander Medcalf
Tuberculosis: A Short History (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2013). Co-edited with Alexander Medcalf, Henrice Altink and Monica Saavedra
Social Determinants of Health: Assessing theory, policy and practice (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2010). Co-edited with Sharon Messenger and Caroline Overy
The Global Eradication of Smallpox (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2010). Co-edited with Sharon Messenger (includes CD with edited oral history material)
History of the Social Determinants of Health: Global Histories, Contemporary Debates (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2009). Co-edited with Harold J. Cook and Anne Hardy
Vaccines, Immunization: Past and future, Ciencia & Saude Coletiva, 16, 2, February 2011. Co-edited with Gilberto Hochman, Fiocruz, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Simultaneously global and local: Re-assessing smallpox vaccination and its spread, 1789-1900. A special issue of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, Volume 83, No. 1, Spring 2009). Co-edited with Niels Brimnes, Aarhus University, Denmark
‘Humanities, Criticality and Transparency: Global Health Histories and the foundations of inter-sectoral partnerships for the democratisation of knowledge’, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 7, 6, 2020, 1-11 (with Alexander Medcalf and Aliko Ahmed)
‘In emergencies, health research must go beyond public engagement toward a true partnership with those affected’, Nature Medicine, 28th January 2020 (with all members of Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Group on Research in Global Health Emergencies)
‘Reassessing the Foundations: Worldwide smallpox eradication, 1957-67’, Medical History, 64, 1, 2020, 71-93 (with Carlos Eduardo D’Avila Pereira Campani)
‘Polio eradication in Syria’, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, July 2014, 547-548 (co-authored with Balsam Ahmed)
‘International Health and the Limits of its Global influence: Bhutan and the Worldwide Smallpox Eradication Programme’, Medical History, 57, 4, October 2013, pp. 461-486
‘Smallpox and polio eradication in India: comparative histories and lessons for contemporary policy’, Ciencia & Saude Coletiva, 16, 2, February 2011, pp. 433-444 (with Rajib Dasgupta)
'Reflections on the eradication of smallpox', The Lancet, Vol. 375, 8 May 2010, pp. 1602-1603
‘A tale of two global health programmes: Smallpox eradication’s lessons for the anti-polio campaign in India’, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 99, No. 7, July 2009, pp. 1176-1184 (co-authored with Rajib Dasgupta)
Selected projects:
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, UK Government – ‘India’s Smallpox Programme as a Global Roadmap’ (22nd March 2018-28th February 2020)
Medical Research Council – ‘Drivers of human exposure to antibacterial resistance in the Sri Lankan environment’ (October 2017-May 2018); Co-I (with Alistair Boxall/PI)
Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation and the Nippon Foundation - 'Leprosy: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Experiences'
Brocher Foundation - '(En)Countering Invisibility: Critical perspectives of Disease, Health Advocacy and Equity'
Wellcome Trust - 'The Nature of Religion, Science and Health'
Wellcome Trust - Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award titled ‘The Local Bases of Global Health: Primary Health Care in South Asia and beyond, 1945-2010’
Wellcome Trust - Wellcome Trust Project Grant titled ‘Diverse Conflicts, Multifaceted Victories: The Control and Eradication of Smallpox in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, 1947-77’