Media

Public lecture by Doctors without Borders former Vice President Professor Didier Fassin “When Humanitarianism Goes to War”

06 May 2011

The Centre for the Humanities and Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) will hold a public lecture by Professor Didier Fassin, former Administrator then Vice-President of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) entitled "When Humanitarianism Goes to War" on May 11 (Wednesday).

The public lecture will be moderated by Dr Robert Peckham, co-Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine.

In the face of the disorders of the world, moral sentiments have become a powerful ground for global as well as local policies. Whether it is to assist the poor or the refugees, aid victims of disasters or justify military interventions, a humanitarian government, which combines solidarity and compassion, is deployed everywhere in favor of the disadvantaged and the oppressed.

The lecture will focus especially on the war scenes, from Kosovo to Iraq to Palestine, and on the role of non-governmental organizations, international agencies and the states in these contexts. It will explore the tensions and contradictions at work in the politics of humanitarianism, thus contributing to a history of the way in which contemporary societies deal with the intolerable.

Professor Didier Fassin is the James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and until 2003, was vice president of Doctors without Borders. He has been appointed to a Visiting Research Professorship at the HKU Centre for the Humanities and Medicine. Professor Fassin has worked extensively on the trauma suffered by local people caught up in conflict in Palestine and Gaza, as well as the experiences of asylum seekers to Europe from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. In the lecture, he will share his personal experiences in the field and recent events, including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the latest uprisings across the Arab world.

Media representatives are cordially invited to the talk. Details are as follows:

Date: 11 May 2011
Time: 18:30 - 19:30
Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre, HKU
Moderator: Dr Robert Peckham, co-Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine
Language: English

Professor Didier Fassin
In May 2011 Professor Didier Fassin from the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, takes up a three-year Visiting Professorship at the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine at The University of Hong Kong.

A distinguished anthropologist, Professor Fassin trained originally as physician in internal medicine and public health, working extensively in South America and Africa, where he gained first-hand experience dealing with poor, dying AIDS patients and their families.

Professor Fassin has worked on the trauma suffered by local people caught up in conflict in Palestine and Gaza, as well as the experiences of asylum seekers to Europe from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

Compassionate but critical, Professor Fassin draws in his work on his personal experiences in the field and recent events, including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the latest uprisings across the Arab world.

Today Professor Fassin is recognized as an authority on the nature of injustice and violence, suffering and trauma, and the ways in which military action is becoming increasingly intertwined with humanitarian aid. Professor Fassin was formerly Vice-President of Médecins Sans Frontières.

For further information of the lecture, please visit: http://www.chm.hku.hk/humanitarianism.html

For enquiries or arrangement of individual interviews with Professor Fassin, please contact Maria Sin by email at mariasin@hku.hk or by phone at 28592867.