School of Social and Political Science

Dr Lioba Hirsch

Lecturer in Social Anthropology

A photo of me outdoors. I am wearing a light blue cardigan and a black rain jacket. My hair is open and I am smiling at the camera.
lioba.hirsch@ed.ac.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/Lioba A. Hirsch/
https://twitter.com/@Lili_Assaba/
Chrystal Macmillan Building
15 George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LD

Research interests

Global health policy Health & Well-being Health inequalities, disability and older people Historical approaches to science, technology and medicine Identities & Inequalities Race and decolonial thought Social studies of biology and medicine

I am an interdisciplinary qualitative and archival researcher interested in antiblackness and colonialism in global and domestic health, with a background in health geography, historical and ethnographic methods. My specific interest lies in the relation between place, disease and antiblackness in and in relation to West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone.

Current and recent research projects have focused on the colonial politics of global health events, such as the 2014-16 EVD outbreak in West Africa and global health institutions, such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine or Médecins sans Frontières.

Background

After completing a PhD in Geography and Global Health at UCL, I worked as aresearch fellow in the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where I researched the School's colonial history. In 2021 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science for my research project 'Care, infrastructure and antiblackness: the making of biomedicine in a Sierra Leonean Hospital' 2021 - 2024. Between 2021 and 2023 I worked as a lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool.

Apart from my research work I have extensive experience of contributing to institutional DEI processes. A lot of my perspectives draw on my background as a development worker in Zambia (2013 - 2015).

Works within

I am on research leave until the end of November 2024 and working remotely.

Lioba-assaba Hirsch's Research Explorer profile