TY - JOUR
T1 - Protest in the time of cholera
T2 - Disease and the metaphors of health and politics
AU - Andrews, Kyrstin Mallon
N1 - Funding Information:
Kyrstin Mallon Andrews is a PhD student of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. She received her MA from Tulane University in cultural anthropology and her BA from the University of Washington in Latin American and Caribbean studies. She is interested in questions of identity, social and political constructions of disease, and humanitarian interventions. Her research explores the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic as a place where local, national, and global anxieties around health, identity, and sovereignty take form. Most recently, she has conducted ethnographic research on the consequences of cholera on public health structures of border crossing at Hispaniola’s border. Her research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council and the Tinker Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 CALACS.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - In the wake of the January 2010 earthquake, UN troops leaking fecal waste into the Artibonite River introduced cholera to Haiti. Soon after, Haitians began demonstrating against the UN presence in the nation, using cholera and its implications as the crux of their accusations. The UN responded by painting protesters as a disruptive minority interfering with the political health of the nation, also using metaphors of disease to justify their actions. This article channels social movement theories to complicate media discourses surrounding protests. I argue that the cholera outbreak provided symbols and a discourse for engaging in a larger political struggle between the Haitian public and UN troops. While interrogating the use of disease metaphors by protesters and the media, this article reveals underlying assumptions about the geographies of health, simultaneously offering a more insightful reading into cultural and political reactions to the outbreak in Haiti.
AB - In the wake of the January 2010 earthquake, UN troops leaking fecal waste into the Artibonite River introduced cholera to Haiti. Soon after, Haitians began demonstrating against the UN presence in the nation, using cholera and its implications as the crux of their accusations. The UN responded by painting protesters as a disruptive minority interfering with the political health of the nation, also using metaphors of disease to justify their actions. This article channels social movement theories to complicate media discourses surrounding protests. I argue that the cholera outbreak provided symbols and a discourse for engaging in a larger political struggle between the Haitian public and UN troops. While interrogating the use of disease metaphors by protesters and the media, this article reveals underlying assumptions about the geographies of health, simultaneously offering a more insightful reading into cultural and political reactions to the outbreak in Haiti.
KW - Cholera
KW - Disease metaphors
KW - Haiti
KW - Mission des nations unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti (MINUSTAH)
KW - Protest
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050248087&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/08263663.2015.1031493
DO - 10.1080/08263663.2015.1031493
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85050248087
SN - 0826-3663
VL - 40
SP - 63
EP - 80
JO - Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
JF - Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
IS - 1
ER -