Conflict and Health in a Turbulent Middle East and North Africa

Marcia C. Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University, US, where she has chaired the Council on Middle East Studies. Inhorn is the author of 7 award-winning books, including The New Arab Man, and (co)editor of 14 volumes, including Un-Settling Middle Eastern Refugees.

This book ticks every box for me: current, politically engaged, theoretically interesting, good geographical and topical coverage. Individually, the chapters are important and timely, but collectively, this is a volume that tells a bigger story about the relationship between reproductive health (both maternity and childhood, sexuality and gender) and war, violence, displacement and genocide. It meets a need that I have for materials to teach with that highlight current scholarship on hot topics in medical anthropology and public health, but it will also be read widely beyond those disciplines.

• PART I. Conflict and HealthWars and Destruction Again: Echoes of Health Struggles in the Arab World, Livia Wick, American University of Beirut, Lebanon War Biology and Antimicrobial Resistance: Tracing the Ruination of Healthcare in the Middle East, Omar Dewachi, Rutgers University, US Strengthening Public Health Surveillance in Conflict Zones: A Case Study from Sudan, Kaveh Khoshnood, Yale School of Public Health, USIntergenerational Health Impacts of Military Violence in Iraq, Kali Rubaii, Purdue University, US PART II.Medical HumanitarianismThe Making of Syrian American Medical Humanitarians, Rania Kassab Sweis, The University of Richmond, USGaza, Medical Humanitarianism, and Islamic Heroics: The Case of Mohammed Taher, Sa’ed Atshan, Swarthmore College, US Prosthetic Promises: Global Health, Technological Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Aftercare, S. Can Ackisoz, University of California, Los Angeles, US Genealogies of the Psychosocial: Post-Disaster Psychiatry in Turkey, Christopher Dole, Amherst College, USPrecarious Chronicity: Stigma, HIV, and Humanitarianism in Beirut, Lebanon, Lizzy Berk, Southern Methodist University, US PART III. Maternal Health in Troubled Times“It's always gender foq rasna:” The Shaping of Gendered Subjectivities through Projects of Humanitarian Reproductive Care, Morgen Chalmiers, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, USExploring the Role of Midwives in Contraception and Abortion Care in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons Learned from Tunisia, Angel Foster, University of Ottawa, CanadaAbortion as Refusal: Reposing the “Woman Question” in Morocco and Beyond, Jess Newman, Cornell University, USStrategic Abundance, Strategic Absence: Mother-Friendly Care and Healthcare Reform in Pronatalist Turkey, Hatice Nilay Erten, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine, US PART IV: The Fate and Future of ChildrenDeafness as Global Health Concern in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Timothy Loh, Princeton University, USCare and Chromosomes in Troubled Times, Christine Sargent, University of Colorado, Denver, USConclusion: The Fate of Children and Their Future in Gaza, Sudan, and Beyond, Marcia C. Inhorn, Yale University, US