Ticks and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever on the Borderland of Europe. Historicizing knowledge production on emerging diseases, diseases surveillance and response in Turkey

The objective of this study is to historicize knowledge production of the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), and its diffusion, reception and policy translation in Turkey, an endemic country at the border of Europe, that has experienced CCHFv outbreaks since 2002. It will contribute to understand how Turkey's history of medicine and public health has shaped the inattention to socio-economic factors of CCHF, that have been overlooked in the production of CCHF knowledge. The second main subobjective will be to trace Turkey's local and national histories since 1945 of zoonotic disease surveillance and response, focusing on the actors of the public health policies and their narrative strategies, attending to engagements with global health institutions. Finally, the project will develop insights into the historical genealogies of key concepts "endemicity" and "emergence" in Turkey, where national territorial security, status as a borderland of Europe, and regional inequalities have played crucial roles in for the past century. The project will draw on 4 main hypotheses. The first one is that CCHF scientific knowledge in Turkey is characterized by multiple unexplored social, political, and economic gaps, the result of a specific history that frames medical problems in the absence of these considerations and perpetuates these absences in its medical and public health instruction and training. Second, I in contrast to the "Strong State" tradition in Turkish historiography, the translation of CCHFv scientific knowledge into public policies and surveillance has resulted from the mobilization of numerous actors, both inside and outside of the state, as has been the case for other health issues. Third, the genealogy of endemicity is linked to global dynamics, especially to the symbolical place Turkey occupies in the world, a place which has been historically constructed by institutions and actors inside and outside of the country.The last hypothesis is that temporality plays a major role in the appearance or disappearance of disease from policy priorities, and CCHF must be situated in a longer history sequence to understand its specific temporality. Although CCHF was the topic of numerous scientific and medical studies in Turkey, social sciences analyses of CCHF have been largely neglected on a global scale. Furthermore, there is currently no historical work more broadly on emergent diseases in Turkey. This project will build on existing historical scholarship on EIDs, global governance of health and co-construction of public policies, and at the same time contribute to much-needed insight into the genealogy of CCHF policies and CCHFv outbreaks in contemporary Turkey and its place in a global history of EIDs and health . I will use a mixed methodology, combining the study of archives, published literature, and interviews to understand both the historical process and contemporary construction of knowledge on CCHFV and its blind spots, and its translation into policies, articulating the national, local and international levels. My main sources will be archives from Turkey (Archives of the Republic, archives of the Ministry of Health and local archives if granted access) and from international organizations (WHO, FAO, OIE), as well as interviews with scientists, policymakers and members of associations related to CCHFv, and ethnography in the "hyper-endemic" region of Tokat to get access to the local historical knowledge. I will devote one year and a half to this field work, and one year and a half to analyze and disseminate my results through reports, participation in public engagement and development of health education, and articles. This postdoc project will contribute to the project TICKRISK by conducting historical analysis of scientific and medical knowledge of CCHF in Turkey and the genealogies of this country's politics of surveillance and public health shaping CCHF preparedness and control measures.