ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Global agendas, local practices: transit of knowledge and epidemiological training in Brazil (1980s - 2000s)

• In Event: Epidemiology Unbound 2

English Abstract

In the late 20th century, Brazilian epidemiologists engaged in intense debates about the state of the recently institutionalised discipline and its future. Throughout the 1990s, the consolidation of graduate programs and academic careers transformed epidemiological training and accelerated institutional strategies of internationalisation for students, researchers, and faculty. In this context, leading actors in the field expressed concerns about the impact of global research agendas on the local production of epidemiological knowledge: should epidemiologists investigate topics of high relevance in the scientific community, such as obesity and lifestyle risk factors, or focus on pressing public health problems, such as dengue fever or leishmaniosis? The presentation examines the debates over the priorities and intellectual orientation of epidemiological training in Brazil. Drawing on scientific literature, oral history interviews, and archival research, I argue that between the 1980s and the 2000s, Brazilian Epidemiology shifted from its foundational social epidemiology agenda grounded in Latin American Social Medicine references to one focused on analytical and descriptive epidemiology based on Anglophone literature and debates. This shift was not absolute and imposed frictions in the professional and moral identity of Epidemiology in Brazil. This presentation resonates with James Secord’s referential discussion on the transit of knowledge, highlighting the importance of approaching knowledge production as an act of communication and the role of translation in scientific activity.

Author

• Luiz Alves Araújo Neto, Fiocruz Brazil