I am an historian specializing in the history of colonialism and the history of global health, most often based on cases related to India and South Asia. My first monograph Constructing the Colonial Encounter. Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India (Curzon Press 1999 and Routledge 2019) investigates encounters between local elites and colonial authorities in eighteenth-century South India. My second monograph, Languished Hopes. Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in Twentieth-century India (Orient BlackSwan 2016) provides an analysis of colonial and independent India’s attempt to control tuberculosis. I also have a broad interest in the history of Danish colonialism. My current research interest focusses on the career of former WHO Director-General Halfdan Mahler and the programme of ‘primary health care’, which he strongly promoted.
