Examining the role of global health in advancing corporate, political agendas

On Friday at the University of Washington, "historian Anne-Emanuelle Birn will present the Stephen Stewart Gloyd endowed lecture, 'Philanthrocapitalism, Cooption and the Politics of Global Health Agenda-Setting,'" KPLU 88.5's "Humanosphere" blog reports. According to the blog, Birn will explain why she "think[s] of global health as a means to also advance corporate or political agendas." The blog writes, "Birn will compare the efforts of the Rockefeller Foundation to largely fund and direct the creation of the field of international health, which contributed to improvements in public health worldwide and eventually the creation of what would become the World Health Organization, to the [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's] current efforts to achieve similarly grand results" (Paulson, 10/4).