Seminar Conveners: Dr Alex Aylward, Professor Erica Charters, Dr Hohee Cho, Professor Rob Iliffe, Dr Sloan Mahone
Seminars in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
Dr Mizuki Kitada (Osaka)
Between Ideology and Policy: The Development of Medicine and Public Health in French Indochina, 1859-1914
This paper examines the development of medicine and public health in French Indochina from the early stages of colonisation to the First World War, with particular attention to the relationship between imperial ideology and colonial policy. French colonial rule has often been characterised by the tension between assimilation and association. However, the extent to which these ideological frameworks shaped concrete medical and public health measures remains unclear.
Focusing on the formation of administrative structures and the implementation of health measures, this study argues that colonial health policies were shaped less by coherent ideological principles than by practical constraints on the ground, including financial limitations, administrative capacity, and local conditions. Measures such as the organisation of medical services, responses to epidemics, and the provision of healthcare were developed in an ad hoc manner, reflecting immediate needs rather than systematic ideological application.
While elements associated with both assimilation and association can be identified, they did not constitute a consistent guiding logic for policy formation. By reconstructing the development of these measures, this paper reconsiders the explanatory power of assimilation and association and highlights the importance of situating colonial public health within its material and administrative constraints.
Mizuki Kitada received her PhD from Kyushu University in 2025 and is currently a JSPS-funded postdoctoral researcher at The University of Osaka. Her research focuses on the history of medicine and public health in French Indochina, particularly the formation of colonial institutions and the governance of epidemics. Her current project explores these issues through comparative analysis of epidemic periods, network analysis of medical actors including the Pasteur Institute, and GIS-based digital humanities approaches.
