Sanjoy Bhattacharya is Director of the Centre for Global Health Histories and Professor in the History of Medicine, Department of History. He specialises in the health, medical, environmental, political and social history of nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia, as well as the history of international and global health programmes.

Sanjoy has been deeply involved in the World Health Organization’s Global Health Histories project (GHH) since its inception in 2004. He has worked closely with the WHO Department of Knowledge Management and Sharing on this initiative, which has led to GHH being made an ‘Office Specific Expected Result’ (an official WHO activity). Sanjoy’s involvement in this context has allowed him to work on history and policy linkages, on inter-disciplinary perspectives in medical history and humanities, and on independent and critical assessments of global health policy. In October 2013 he was designated the Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories.

Sanjoy is editor of the journal Medical History, a world leading publication in its field. Published by Cambridge University Press from 2012 onwards, with generous support from the Wellcome Trust, Medical History will continue to showcase the best scholarship and also foster interest in the history of medicine and health worldwide. Sanjoy also edits Global Health Histories, a monograph series published by Cambridge University Press, and co-edits the New Perspectives in South Asian History (an established book series from Orient Blackswan India Ltd).

These editorial responsibilities have allowed him to act on his strong belief in the value of international partnerships as a driver for the creation of fresh analytical frameworks and new kinds of historical work. Sanjoy has established links with scholars and health officials in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, India, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Sri Lanka and the USA. The Centre for Global Health Histories at the University of York provides a further boost to his national and international collaborative activities.

Sanjoy enjoys working with academics keen to push disciplinary boundaries and developing exciting, new inter-disciplinary methodologies. He has taught courses directed at medical, science, arts and humanities students, and has worked closely with clinicians, public health specialists, scientists and government administrators on research projects.

Sanjoy is deeply involved in a variety of outreach activities, and has appeared in a variety of radio and TV programmes. He is committed to helping the development of history teaching aids for schools and has recently been a consultant to a BAFTA award winning web-based module on the history of smallpox prepared by Timelines TV.

Research

Sanjoy is a historian of medicine, South Asia and imperialism since c.1800. His research interests include:

• medicine, health, environment, science and technology in South Asia since c.1800
• international and global health programmes since 1850
• the South Asian diaspora since 1800
• the British empire since 1800