Bodies, borders and bugs: the construction and destruction of Zika threat in the UK, US and WHO

The research will examine the complex geographies of threat, difference and fear that arise as powerful geopolitical actors seek to contain the spread of disease. The research probes what can be learnt from the spread of the Zika virus, in particular the epidemic in the Americas since 2015. Multiple institutions across the globe - both state and non-state -- sought to generate knowledge concerning the spread and science of Zika, reflecting a wider geopolitical landscape of authority and expertise. In this way the virus was geo-graphed: written on and through certain places and represented in spatial terms. This research examines the production of knowledge concerning Zika, initially through discourse analysis of public health policy (MPhil in Geographical Research). I will explore the central themes of embodiment, immigration, (ab)normality and health security as the discourse negotiates the variety of actants, boundaries and spaces that are entangled in this particular 'outbreak narrative': the nation state and international state system; the human body; the mosquito; and the pathogen itself. This dissertation will also study the elicitation of expertise as these actants are discussed.