Co-director Announcement

The Departments of History and Politics at the University of York are very pleased to announce that Dr João Nunes, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics, has been appointed the co-director of the Centre for Global Health Histories. The WHO has also appointed João the Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories, which is an official designation given to CGHH, allowing it to work with its offices and government agencies around the world.

João, previously an associate member of CGHH, joined the Department of Politics in September 2014. His principal research interests focus on the politics of health (including neglected issues in global health; health security; global and community health; health as a political and cultural phenomenon; health social movements; and the history of medicine) and security studies (including security as emancipation and critical security studies). He has published widely on these topics and is currently working on the projects ‘Women's social movements and the response to Zika and microcephaly in Brazil: Addressing neglect through community-centred approaches’ (funded by a British Council Newton Fund Institutional Links grant) and ‘Developing the capacity and enhancing the public health impact of community health workers in Brazil’ (funded by the University of York’s ESRC Impact Accelerator Account).

João has worked closely with the Centre for Global Health Histories for many years. He has presented at GHH seminars and workshops, and authored a chapter on Brazil’s Family Health Strategy for 2015’s edited volume ‘Health for All: The Journey to Universal Health Coverage’. He and Dr Alexander Medcalf (Deputy Director of CGHH) have also worked together on the Wellcome Trust Seed Award-funded project ‘Community health workers in Brazil and the global movement for universal health coverage’.

Professor Neil Carter, head of the Department of Politics, said: "The Department of Politics is very happy with this interdisciplinary collaboration, and looks forward to supporting Dr João Nunes and the Centre for Global Health Histories (CGHH) as it moves to the next stage of an extremely rich and productive existence. The work of CGHH with multiple national and international partners, including (but not limited to) the World Health Organization, speaks very closely to our research and policy engagement strengths at Politics."

We are delighted that João has become a Co-Director of our centres, which will see him working on policy engagement work worldwide with Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya in the coming years. All at the Departments of History and Politics are looking forward to a long and productive association.