Uli Beisel

u.beisel@open.ac.uk

Research Student

Geography

Qualifications

Psychology (2005, Bremen); MA 'Environment, Culture and Society' (2006, Lancaster)

PhD Research Project

Who gets bitten? Malaria control in Ghana

There are many studies about global efforts to malaria prevention, management and control. What is lacking, however, are studies about the relations between scientific interventions and the broader societal dimensions of malaria. Here my research aims to contribute; the approach to the study is cross-disciplinary and brings together insights from human and non-human geographies and postcolonial, cultural and science studies.

Malaria is a disease that emerges out of an encounter of three species - the plasmodium parasite, the anopheles mosquito and humans. The object of scholarly attention hence has to be the meeting in itself - the fragile but potentially destructive moment when the lives of three distinct and very much alive species intersect. More concretely, malaria control in Ghana happens in a space where lively mosquitoes meet gold mining companies, fast evolving parasites encounter enthusiastic vaccine developers and where poor people still struggle to pay for antimalarial drugs. My doctoral research hence aims to tease out some of the complex intertwinnings of mosquito-parasite-human interactions, health politics and political economy around malaria control in Ghana.

Recent Publications

Beisel, U. (forthcoming). Who bites back first? Science, Public Health & Democracy in Malaria Control Experiments in Ghana. In: Geissler, W. Changing states of science: ethnographic and historical perspectives on government, citizenship and medical research in contemporary Africa. Duke University Press

Beisel, U. (2009). Jumping hurdles with mosquitoes? Collaborative book review: When Species Meet, by D. Haraway. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. ISSN: 0263-7758

Beisel, U. (06/2009) Shrinking Malaria's Map - but who gets left behind?. UC Irvine Blog Project: Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa.

Beisel, U., Jaeger, M. (2007). Powerless Networks? The Implementation of Decentralised Technologies in Madagascar.  In: Bora, A., Bröchler, S., Decker, M. Technology Assessment in der Weltgesellschaft. Berlin: Edition Sigma. ISBN: 978-3-89404-940-9

Beisel, U. (2005). Beteiligung schafft Akzeptanz: Die Entstehungsgeschichte eines Bürgerwindparks. IPUblic. Vol.9, No.2 (Participation creates acceptance: the history of a citizens-owned wind farm)

Recent Conference Presentations

Beisel, U. (2009). Ecology & Public Health in Insecticide Spraying Projects in Ghana. The Publics of Public Health Conference, Kilifi, Kenya

Beisel, U. & Schneider, T. (2009). Dr. JESUS: The Transformation of a German Ambulance to a Ghanaian Bus. CRESC Conference: Objects - What Matter? Technology, Value and Social Change, Manchester

Beisel, U. (2009). Ecology & Democracy in Malaria Control Experiments. European Conference on Africa Studies (ECAS 09), Leipzig

Beisel, U. (2009). Invited Discussant: STS and ontology in research practice. Humboldt University Berlin

Beisel, U. (2008). Who gets bitten? First reflections on Malaria Control in Ghana. Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG), London.

Beisel, U. (2007). DDT, GM mosquitoes and a malaria vaccine: Tracing 'innovation' in malaria prevention and treatment. Making Innovation Work for the Poor in a Globalised World, Practical Action & STEPS Centre at Institute for Development Studies, Brighton

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

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