The behavioural research agenda in global health: An advocate's legacy

Abstract

Two of the disciplines that have come to infuse global health with some of its current vibrancy are epidemiology and anthropology, disciplines that focus, in one way or another, on the causal importance of human behaviour in socio-political, ecological, evolutionary, and cultural context. One of the little-known stories in the history of twentieth century global health involves the works of a number of pioneering interdisciplinary scholar-practitioners, who urged a synthesis of epidemiological and anthropological perspectives in what was then called 'tropical medicine'. One of these pioneers was Frederick L. Dunn, who forwarded lasting insights about the importance of human behavioural research in understanding infectious disease. This article provides a historical-biographical accounting of Dunn's contributions to public health in the second half of the twentieth century, arguing that his persistent advocacy of multi-level, social behavioural research and his notion of 'causal assemblages' were critical in the early development of the twentieth century discipline of global health.

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