Lecturer: Darius Bittle-Dockery, Anthropology

Chronic illnesses account for over 70% of deaths worldwide, with most deaths occurring in low-middle-income countries like Jordan. The high chronic illness prevalence in Jordan’s Syrian refugee population has combined with its already stretched healthcare system to create a critical environment in which refugees must discern effective chronic illness management (CIM) strategies (e.g. identifying where to seek care, or whether to take medications). The outcomes of these strategies are entangled within the health information networks of the humanitarian system, as refugees are paradoxically tasked with developing CIM strategies despite also suffering from a dearth of adequate resources and information with which to inform their design. Frequent breakdowns within these information networks leave patients with an inability to navigate the system, a lack of adequate health information, and creates the need-- otherwise framed as "the responsibility"-- to care for themselves. Descriptions from humanitarian health officials align with current biomedical logics which attribute refugee health outcomes to "improper" or "risky" behaviors. These logics conceptually decouple organizations from these health outcomes as they fail to acknowledge their own role within the biosocial co-production of the informational environment in which refugees must make decisions regarding their health. This research reconceptualizes refugee health networks as immaterial infrastructural objects through which healthcare is delivered and within which the logics of humanitarian biomedicine are embedded.

In his prefatory talk, Bittle-Dockery will attempt to give volume to the voices of refugees as they illuminate the consequences of these circumstances through narratives of their lived experiences. In the discussion following, we will discuss two articles. Attendees are invited to access those articles and some framing questions here.