Professor Carlo Caduff
Head, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine
- Professor in Anthropology
Research interests
- Medicine
- Politics
- Sociology
Biography
Carlo Caduff is Professor and Head of the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine.
He has been working for over a decade as a social and cultural anthropologist with a focus on the anthropology of science, medicine, media, technology and the state. He received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 2009 and has been teaching at King’s since 2012.
Research
- Anthropology
- Sociology
- Medicine
- Politics
Carlo's work engages with anthropological, sociological and philosophical debates about power, language, the body and the state. Over the past decade, he has been the Principal Investigator of two major ethnographic research projects: one on pandemic preparedness in the United States and another one on cancer care in India.
These projects have resulted in publications in journals in the social sciences (Cultural Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Annual Review of Anthropology, Cambridge Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Anthropological Theory, BioSocieties), the medical sciences (The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, Global Public Health, The Journal of Global Oncology, The Journal of Cancer Policy, Nature Reviews Cancer), and the humanities (Critical Inquiry).
In addition to these articles, he is the author of a book on pandemic preparedness published by the University of California Press (with a German translation published by Konstanz University Press). He is the editor of three journal special issues, including a Current Anthropology issue on new media publics.
His current work, located in the Global South, examines how patients and family members access cancer care in India. Ethnographically the project follows actors and institutions struggling to make medicine affordable in an emerging economy grappling with entrenched forms of health inequality.
The focus is on cancer, arguably one of the most complex and expensive medical conditions. The rising rates of the disease, the lack of universal health coverage, the fragmented health system, and the growing fascination with technology have transformed cancer into one of the greatest global health challenges of our time.
For a large part of the Indian population, a diagnosis results in catastrophic expenditures for patients and their families. In this context, ‘affordability’ has emerged as a topic of great social and political urgency as well as medical, scientific, and logistic challenges. The project is based in India’s largest public cancer hospital and is funded by a 5-year Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.
Teaching
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Further details
Research
Culture, Medicine & Power research group
The interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.
Institute of Cancer Policy
The Institute of Cancer Policy brings together global cancer faculty across King’s College London and it’s NHS partner hospitals under Kings’ Health Partners.
The Centre for the Humanities and Health
A multidisciplinary forum interfacing the humanities, health, science & society.
Spatialities and Networks of Cancer
The Spatialities and Networks of Cancer research cluster examines historically and ethnographically practices that spatialize cancer. Working across the North and the South, our research pays particular attention to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Climate & sustainability researchers at King’s
King's researchers working across climate and sustainability
News
Success comes in threes: GHSM graduate scoops up trio of King's awards
Annual awards recognise excellent academic achievements, contributions to King’s, and potential for the future
Global Health & Social Medicine academics support burgeoning researchers in social medicine
The Global Social Medicine Network recently held an essay competition for postgraduate students to give them the opportunity to have their work published.
The reality behind cancer in India
India is reported to have over one million new cancer patients each year. On-going research seeks to improve cancer care for patients.
Events
CaféTheoria Workshop 1: Michel Foucault with Professor Carlo Caduff
First part of an interactive, hybrid workshop series where renowned experts discuss core social science theories, and engage peers and colleagues in lively...
Please note: this event has passed.
The political stakes of cancer: New contexts, new subjectivities
This workshop will be the first step in building a global network of early career researchers working on cancer in new contexts and with new subjectivities.
Please note: this event has passed.
Twenty-Four Stills photography exhibition
Twenty-Four Stills is a photographic exhibition documenting patients, family members and hospital staff in a cancer center in Kolkata, India.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Partnerships, Power, Potential: GHSM on from 10
This exhibition takes a look at the research being undertaken by GHSM academics and students across the world.
Research
Culture, Medicine & Power research group
The interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and illness.
Institute of Cancer Policy
The Institute of Cancer Policy brings together global cancer faculty across King’s College London and it’s NHS partner hospitals under Kings’ Health Partners.
The Centre for the Humanities and Health
A multidisciplinary forum interfacing the humanities, health, science & society.
Spatialities and Networks of Cancer
The Spatialities and Networks of Cancer research cluster examines historically and ethnographically practices that spatialize cancer. Working across the North and the South, our research pays particular attention to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Climate & sustainability researchers at King’s
King's researchers working across climate and sustainability
News
Success comes in threes: GHSM graduate scoops up trio of King's awards
Annual awards recognise excellent academic achievements, contributions to King’s, and potential for the future
Global Health & Social Medicine academics support burgeoning researchers in social medicine
The Global Social Medicine Network recently held an essay competition for postgraduate students to give them the opportunity to have their work published.
The reality behind cancer in India
India is reported to have over one million new cancer patients each year. On-going research seeks to improve cancer care for patients.
Events
CaféTheoria Workshop 1: Michel Foucault with Professor Carlo Caduff
First part of an interactive, hybrid workshop series where renowned experts discuss core social science theories, and engage peers and colleagues in lively...
Please note: this event has passed.
The political stakes of cancer: New contexts, new subjectivities
This workshop will be the first step in building a global network of early career researchers working on cancer in new contexts and with new subjectivities.
Please note: this event has passed.
Twenty-Four Stills photography exhibition
Twenty-Four Stills is a photographic exhibition documenting patients, family members and hospital staff in a cancer center in Kolkata, India.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Partnerships, Power, Potential: GHSM on from 10
This exhibition takes a look at the research being undertaken by GHSM academics and students across the world.