The Foreign Gaze

The field of research known as academic globalhealth is in the midst of a scientific debate that is questioning itsepistemological foundations. This book contributes to that questioning. Througha series of essays that weave together personal narratives and conceptualreflections, it shows how as researchers in academic global health, we defer toa distant, powerful, foreign gaze, whose power shapes our pose and what we cansee or say. Many of our accepted knowledge practices – how we make, use, shareand value knowledge – are steeped in structural prejudice and heavily pepperedby epistemic injustice. To transform academic global health, we need a criticalmass of people who can articulate why many of our accepted knowledge practicesare unfair, people who know where to aim their efforts to entrench justpractices, people who can get others to join in those efforts. This book waswritten to help build that critical mass.