Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The role of mass transportation, immigration, tourism, demographic growth, and bioterrorism are but some of the engines behind disease dynamics and disease evolution. Examples using recent epidemic outbreaks will be used to highlight the role of mathematics in the evaluation of the impact of these epidemic drivers. Mathematics will also be used to highlight the relevance of "boderless" health policy perspectives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Heath, hygiene and contagion are dominant metaphors in International Relations. Whether in the form of a civilizing mission or a cold-war containment, these metaphors have been used in a very narrow way. The biomedical framing of the Avian Flu, for example, makes all viruses threats to be either contained or destroyed. Using the material case of the Avian Flu Virus (H5N1), this paper attempts to re-politicize this biomedical discourse. H5N1 is a line of contagion. The paper argues how viruses move (viral politics) is of political importance to contemporary International Relations. As such, the paper differentiates between the viral pool as an ontology of difference and a singular threat. It argues that viral politics can teach International Relations about the complexity of threats and the diversity of life. To avoid blanket demonizations of other ways of being in the world, international relations must develop a vocabulary appropriate to dealing with the complexity of human and non-human life.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the discourse on Human Security, it has been said that security should be considered not in the context of state-state relations, but in that of individual security. To a certain extent, this argument is convincing. However, it has rarely been understood that this argument is constructed on the basis of a modern understanding of universalized human development. This comprehension of humanity has often resulted in colonial occupation with a justification that the home country's colonization would contribute to the colonized nation in terms of health and sanitation. In this paper, I will investigate recent discourses in Japan regarding the bird flu epidemic, a disease allegedly prevalent on the Asian continent, and I will compare it to what was said in the case of Japan's colonization of Taiwan, and in the context of the narratives of health and sanitation that were used in this case in particular. In doing so, I will argue that the recent discourses on Human Security regarding contagion are ironically re-generating the state-centered perception towards world affairs by presenting contagion in a light that is similar to traditional threats presented by so-called Others.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This research investigates the effect of marriage on the utilization of preventive health services, in this case flu shots. Improving outreach and otherwise increasing the use of preventive health behaviors is key in an era of skyrocketing health care costs.
Theory suggests that married men will be more likely to obtain flu shots due to the social integration provided by marriage, while married women will be more likely to receive shots because of the economic benefits of marriage. This would suggest that the effect of marriage would disappear for women once controlling for economic variables. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, I employ logistic regression analysis and report odds ratios. I find no effect of marriage for men and a very limited effect of marriage for women. Possible reasons for this are discussed, and it is concluded that marriage might still have an indirect effect on flu shots as well as a direct effect on health behaviors other than flu shots.
Blacks and the uninsured were least likely to receive flu shots. These populations could be the focus of outreach for organizations that administer flu shots, especially if the number of uninsured in the United States remains high.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Beginning in the late 1990s non-traditional security studies began to study the health-security nexus. From this period onward diseases became increasingly discussed as threats to international, national and human security. Naturally occurring viruses such as HIV/AIDS and bird flu are presented as security issues alongside the purposive use of biological agents such as anthrax. This paper explores the securitization of global health issues in the period of the late 1990s through the present, evaluating how health issues can become security issues. Adopting the Copenhagen school?s theory of securitization, the paper explores several questions concerning the creation of health issues as security issues. What is being threatened when health problems are a security threat? Who are the likely securitizing actors for health? Are health issues likely to be successful securitizations or only partial securitization successes? Which nations appear more likely to securitize health issues? In concluding the paper explores whether a sixth sector of security - health - should be added to the five security sectors of the Copenhagen school (military, environmental, economic, societal, and political) or whether health issues are better subsumed under one (or more) of the existing five sectors.