Medical institutions and public health programs have emerged out of empires and submerged otherwise ways of attending to bodily and collective health.

Otherwise Bodies is a resources for understanding the intersection of medicine and empire. It is also a platform for imaginings. Otherwise Bodies invites collective reflection on bodies surviving empire and thriving through alternative lifeways. It is an exchange of world-making practices in pursuit of individual, collective, and relational health. We invite contributors to create, question, dwell in, and dialogue in pursuit of wellness, health, and the potential for long life and a good death. Alternative avenues for health have always existed in the face of to empire.

What are Empires?

Empires claim the authority to rule over the lands of other peoples and nations. Empires typically expand over time, aiming to rule over more and more territory. They have historically tried to include people as new subjects of empire (or as citizens) and have also been known to exclude various populations from territories they claim and from political power within the empire.

What is U.S. Empire?

U.S. empire refers to the political formation, including governing institutions that make up the U.S. state, that currently claims sovereignty over parts of North America, Hawai‘i, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Confederated States of Micronesian, the Marshall Islands, American Samoa, Palau, Northern Marianas islands, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, Johnston Island, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Wake Island, Navassa Island.^[1] The lands currently occupied by the over 600 U.S. military bases around the world are also a part of U.S. empire (Vine 2015), as are the information systems, technologies, personnel, and the global networks of power that emanate from the U.S. Department of Defense. U.S. empire spans from 1776 to the present. In the past, the U.S. empire has occupied the Philippines, Panama, the Panama Canal Zone, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nanpō Island, Nicaragua, Ryuku Islands, and Veracruz. 

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^[1] See https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-are-us-states-territories-and-commonwealths-designated-geographic-names-information-system