Sara Jane Samuel

Samuel developed an interest in the history, politics, and ethics of public health as an undergraduate at Yale University. As a scholar of public health and history in the department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia, she is interested in the historic linkages between public health, national security, and American foreign policy in South Asia and Mexico. Specifically, Samuel’s research examines the nonviolent ways American power has been projected through international vaccination campaigns during the Cold War. Her goal is to articulate a vision of American foreign policy that does not heavily rely on instruments of force and uses public health interventions to promote peace.