in partnership with the South Asia Center, South Asia Studies Dept, Dept of History and Sociology of Science & Center for Global Health
Kiran Kumbhar is a historian, writer, and public health expert, working primarily on the history of medicine and public health in modern India, and on the history of global public health. His Ph.D. dissertation explored the problem of "declining" trust in biomedical doctors and highlighted the major role that caste-based privilege has played in the history of the Indian medical profession. He is currently working on research projects that look at the history of healthcare policy in India, the role of caste in colonial and post-independence healthcare, and the discourse and debates on traditional medicine. He has taught courses at Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins in the history of science and the history of medicine and public health across multiple geographies, and in South Asian history. Kiran also works to bring academic scholarship into the larger public discourse through writing and podcasting. In 2022-23 he worked with the Suno India platform on a podcast series: "Becoming Modern: Healthcare and History in India." His writings have been published in The India Forum, The Wire, Scroll, The Hindu, The Times of India, fiftytwo, The Swaddle, and Quartz.