There are currently vast asymmetries both within and between countries when it comes to the matter of who experiences good health. Some people enjoy long lives largely characterized by the absence of illness and can access high-quality medical treatment when illness does arise. Others live for a much shorter time – struck down by preventable diseases, or dying in childbirth, for instance – and often also have severely limited or no access to health resources.
The academic field of Global Health Justice – situated at the intersection of bioethics, political philosophy and law – investigates the best way to conceptualize and evaluate many of the health disparities plaguing our world, as well as the duties that this generates for states, transnational corporations and other agents. This conference, organized under the auspices of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme at Goethe University Frankfurt (generously funded by the Höppsche Stiftung), aims to create a platform to hear from, and advance the work of a diverse group of global scholars who are working in various areas of this field.
A key focus of the conference will be attempting to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Hence, the conference will have as an overarching goal, putting theorists of health justice in dialogue with practitioners of public and global health delivery. Consequently, we aim to hear from three distinct groups: scholars working on the theoretical foundations of health justice, those working on the empirical study of health-related social movements, and global health policy practitioners.
Panels and keynote addresses will address important questions such as how to think about health justice after the COVID-19 pandemic, the implications of the environmental crisis for health care delivery, and the work of health activists across the globe to advance the goal of health justice.
