About:
My research focuses on the (dis)locations of tropicality in relation to the material dimensions of the emerging infectious diseases discourse in Global Health. What happens when diseases that are historically local occurrences are framed as essentially foreign threats? I am particularly interested in Chagas disease, a parasitic disease transmitted by an insect vector (triatomine), that has gained its epidemiological relevance in the US through its association with migration from Latin America despite growing evidence that local transmission cycles have continuously been part of US landscapes. How are these landscapes produced as sites where encounters between species help redraw the boundaries of nation and race?