MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response / Course details

Healthcare relies upon the circulation of goods, people, and information. What happens when such circulations are disrupted by climate change? Focusing on healthcare, this research-led course offers an interdisciplinary entry point to understanding climate change impacts. We will explore the cascading global consequences of severe weather on vital mobilities, that is, movements of goods, people, and information that impact life chances. There is a pressing need to understand the impacts of climate change on healthcare and emergency services. Climate change poses risks to human health, hospitals, and health services. Especially significant are the acquisition of medical supplies during extreme weather events. Drawing on concepts of vital mobilities, infrastructure disruption, and mobility justice, students will address a critical gap in social scientific knowledge about global medical supply chains and their vulnerability to climate change, theorising vital mobilities and identifying adaptation measures.

• Understand interactions of healthcare delivery and climate change impacts, with focus on movements of goods, people, and information
• Understand complex and extensive journeys of medical supplies from points of manufacture to points of care  
• Understand complex and extensive journeys of patients and health professionals
• Understand priorities, innovations, trends, and tensions at play in climate change response and healthcare provision  
• Understand concepts of vital mobilities, including definition and applications
• Understand how healthcare provision and its vulnerabilities can be understood and represented through academic research, writing and creative knowledge translation
• Develop research, analysis, and communication skills 

This course is taught through two-hour interactive sessions that emphasize discussion based on the readings. In advance, read required articles and familiarize yourself with creative projects. Come prepared to share your critical engagement and subjective experience.

Creative Projects

During each lecture, we will explore one expression of climate and/or mobility creativity, that is, an artistic and/or creative output that explores themes related to health, climate change, and mobility. This will bring us into conversation with diverse perspectives, as well as provide concrete examples to inform the development of your Creative Knowledge Translation Project.

Focus Area

I recommend picking one region, disaster, or health condition/medical supply to focus on throughout the course - for example, a place you have lived or a place where you would like to work. This will help you to think and feel through the readings and creative projects, as well as provide a basis for your assessments.

• Learn theories and concepts related to climate change, healthcare, and mobility, including definition and application, namely: vital mobilities, infrastructure disruption, and mobility justice
• Develop a critical understanding of the (im)mobilities of people, goods, and information exacerbated by climate change
• Develop understanding of different disasters (e.g. slow versus fast onset, high versus low profile), and the representation of their impacts
• Develop and assess strategies for increasing healthcare access in the context of disruption

• Critically interrogate academic and non-academic sources on climate change, healthcare, and mobility
• Understand and apply key theoretical concepts including vital mobilities, infrastructure disruption, and mobility justice
• Understand the role of climate change as exacerbating pre-exiting threats and vulnerabilities
• Develop, articulate, and sustain logical, structured and reasoned arguments in both written, oral, and visual contexts

• Understand the many facets of climate change, healthcare, and mobility and use this to develop and assess appropriate humanitarian interventions in future crises
• Develop a creative project to inform the general public of links between climate change, healthcare, and mobility
• Write a critical essay demonstrating research skills
• Present essay and creative project as a work in progress, demonstrating oral communication skills and reflexivity in the research process
• Present final creative project to class

• Develop a creative project to communicate academic knowledge to a wider audience
• Develop specialist knowledge in the areas of climate change and healthcare applicable to future careers
• Develop public speaking skills
• Develop sensitivity for the complex issues facing individuals and communities confronted by climate change-related disruption

Allison, E. 2017. Toward a Feminist Care Ethic for Climate Change. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 33(2):152-158.

Anatoly, K. et al. 2014. Evacuation of a mental health center during a forest fire in Israel. Disaster Medicine & Public Health Preparedness 8 (4): 288-292.

Sheller, M. 2019. Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes. London: Verso.

Sodero, S. 2018. Vital mobilities: Circulating blood via fictionalized vignettes. Cultural Geographies 26(1): 109-125.

Sodero, S. and R. Rackham. 2020. Blood drones: Using utopia as method to imagine future vital mobilities. Mobilities 15(1): 11-24.

Duffy, M. et al. 2023. The social justice issues of smoke im/mobilities. Australian Geographer 54(4): 573–587. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2023.2256595  

Madzimbamuto, F. 2020. Ventilators are not the answer in Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine 12(1): 1-3.