Maps of Malignancy: Epidemiologists and Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa

Epidemiological maps of disease have multiplied and become critical to contemporary global health policy and planning in recent decades. Given the ubiquity and importance of these maps, it is critical that we have a good understanding of their histories, the way they are made and the power they have on understandings of disease and healthcare agendas. In this project, I aim to shed light on some of these issues by carrying out a historical and anthropological research of the efforts of epidemiologists to survey and map cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa over the last 70 years. Specifically, I hope the project will give us a better understanding of the political and scientific reasons for mapping cancer in Africa, of the forms of expertise and labour that are necessary to make these cancer maps and of how these maps influence (or not) health policy and planning in Africa.