London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

This presentation examines the formation and development of intercolonial medical institutions in the Pacific Islands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its target audience is student and staff interested in the history of healthcare provision and medical education in the Pacific Islands, as well as the broader colonial history of medicine.

This talk is about how the Pacific Islands established intercolonial medical institutions under the British leadership during the 19–20th century. With the British and New Zealand colonies as core members, fifteen Pacific Islands under five imperial powers were involved in a centralised intercolonial healthcare system, comprising colonial health services, education institutions, a leprosarium, and military medical corps. By analysing how each institution centralised and operated, the speaker will reveal how medical and health services connected the British colonies under one system, thus underscoring the intimate relationship between empire and health. In doing so, the speaker argues that healthcare in the South Pacific was uniquely shaped as an intercolonial venture to establish efficient colonial governance. Together, the centralised health institutions were an agenda to create a sub-global and sub-imperial medical block in the Pacific.

Speaker

Hohee Cho

Dr Hohee Cho is a Research Associate at the Pandemic Sciences Institute and the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford. She specialises in international health, disease ecology, and medical institutions in the Pacific Islands. Prior to her current position, she was a Departmental Lecturer in Global History and the History Medicine at University of Oxford and a Research Associate at the University of Liverpool.

Event notices

• Please note that you can join this event in person or you can join the session remotely.
• Please note that this session will not be recorded.