Dr Jonathan Kennedy, PhD

Profile

I am a Reader in Politics and Global Health in the Centre for Public Health and Policy. I am also co-Deputy Director of the Centre.

My research use insights from sociology, political economy, anthropology and international relations to analyse important public health problems. For example, my research has explored the link between populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Europe, the negative impact of the CIA drone strikes on polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, and how Saudi-led bombing of Yemen resulted in the world’s worst cholera outbreak in 2017.

My book, Pathogenesis: How germs made history, was published by Penguin in 2023. It uses insights from a variety of academic disciplines – from genomics to economics to classics – to understand the impact that infectious diseases have had on human society from 50,000 years ago to the present date. Pathogenesis was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and featured on the Times and Financial Times best summer books lists, and Sunday Times, Amazon.com and Goodreads best books of 2023. It has been translated into 14 languages.

I have also written on the link between politics and public health in the Guardian, El Pais, Reader’s Digest, Project Syndicate, and London Review of Books.

I have a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge (2013).

Prior to joining Queen Mary, University of London in 2016, I taught international development at the Department of Political Science, University College London and worked as a research associate at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge.

If you are interested in learning more about me and my work, you can listen to this interview with Isy Suttie.

I am on Twitter: @j_j_kennedy

Research

Research Interests:

My research use insights from sociology, political economy, anthropology and international relations to analyse important public health problems. For example, my research has explored the link between populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Europe, the negative impact of the CIA drone strikes on polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, and how Saudi-led bombing of Yemen resulted in the world’s worst cholera outbreak in 2017. I am also interested in the role that global health actors like the WHO and Gates Foundation play in setting the agenda related to tackling infectious diseases.

My book, Pathogenesis: How germs made history, was published by Penguin in 2023. It uses insights from a variety of academic disciplines – from genomics to economics – to understand the impact that infectious diseases have had on human society from 50,000 years ago to the present date. Pathogenesis was listed by The Times and Financial Times as one of their best summer books 2023.

Publications

Please click through to see a complete list of Jonathan's publications.

Featured Publications

McCoy, David, Stephen Roberts, Salma Daoudi and Jonathan Kennedy (2023): ‘Global health security and the health-security nexus: principles, politics and praxis,’ BMJ Global Health 8(9):e013067.

Jonathan Kennedy (2019): ‘Populism and vaccine hesitancy in Europe: An analysis of national level data,’ European Journal of Public Health 29(3):512-16.

Jonathan Kennedy, Andrew Harmer and David McCoy (2017): ‘The political determinants of the cholera outbreak in Yemen’, Lancet Global Health 5(11): e970-71.

Jonathan Kennedy and Domna Michailidou (2017): ‘Civil war, contested sovereignty and the limits of global health: The political determinants of the Syrian polio outbreak in 2013’, Health Policy and Planning 32(5): 690-698.

Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King (2014): ‘The political economy of farmers' suicides in India: Indebted cash-crop farmers with marginal landholdings explain state-level variation in suicide rates,’ Globalization and Health 10(16): 1-9.

Keertichandra Rajan, Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King (2013): ‘Is Wealthier Always Healthier in Poor Countries? The Health Effects of Income, Inequality, Poverty, and Literacy in India,’ Social Science and Medicine 88: 98-107.

Supervision

I am interested in supervising students whose research focuses on the social, political and economic determinants of health.

I am currently supervising Aida Hussain, whose research on global health governance Yemen and Syria is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council through the London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Doctoral Training Programme.