I have three active, ongoing, lines of research: the history of malaria elimination attempts in Africa; a project with development economists about research ethics; and public health research in Oregon involving students and a local NGO focused on the needs and experiences of people who inject drugs (PWIDs). I have also published a book about the history of human experimentation in East Africa, and an award-winning edited volume about leisure and every day life in Africa. Links to all publications are below. Please email if you’re interested in seeing raw data for any project.

I. Malaria Elimination in Africa: History, Ethics, Failures, and the Way Forward

An ongoing research area focused on the history of malaria elimination on the African continent. It is funded with a 5-year NSF CAREER award through the Science and Technology Studies (STS) program area, and work began in 2019. The project draws on archival research at the Zanzibar National Archives and the WHO archives, ethnographic research in Zanzibar, and nearly 100 interviews conducted with Zanzibaris. Working closely with a team of co-authors, including Judith Meta in Tanzania and undergraduate students from the UO’s Clark Honors College, we have a series of articles addressing the major themes of the grant. More about the award here, and me speaking about why history is important in considering malaria eradication attempts here. Publications and works-in-progress that are derived from this grant include:

Judith Meta and Bi. Fatma in Zanzibar. 2019.

Judith Meta and Bi. Amina. Zanzibar, 2019.

  • Melissa Graboyes, Judith Meta, Rhaine Clarke*, Margaret Bird*, Lily McCann*. “Puddles, Ditches, and Drainage: Connected Histories of Water and Malaria in Contemporary Zanzibar,"Water History. 2024: 1-31. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes, Judith Meta, Rhaine Clarke*. “Mazingira and the Malady of Malaria: Perceptions of Malaria as an Environmental Disease in Contemporary Zanzibar.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 95. 2022: 134-144. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes and Judith Meta. “Rebounding Malaria and the Failures of Eradication: The World Health Organization campaign and the after effects, 1957-1985,” Health & Place. 2022: 102842. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes, Daphne Gallagher, Jennifer Tappan. “Introduction to the Special Section: Histories of Global Health in Africa,” Health & Place. 2022: 102863. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes and Zainab Alidina*. “African Studies Keyword: Malaria," African Studies Review. 64 (4). 2021: 959-985. HERE.

  • Melissa Graboyes and Mikala Capage*. Blog Post. “The World Celebrates the First Malaria Vaccine—But Don’t Expect Malaria to Disappear.” Nursing Clio. November 29, 2021. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes. Blog Post. “We’re Succeeding in Our Fight Against Malaria—Now It’s Time to Plan for Failure.” British Medical Journal: theBMJopinion. October 10, 2019. HERE

  • Melissa Graboyes, Judith Meta, David Lefevre, Ava Minu-Sepehr. “'It is Good for the Community to Understand': Zanzibari Perspectives on Immunity, Acquired Immunity, and Rebound Malaria,” In revision.

  • Melissa Graboyes, Mikala Capage*, Rachel Conner*, Nelly Nouboussi*, Marlee Odell* and Dimitra Fellman*, “Rebound Malaria: A Replication and Extension of Cohen et al.’s 2002 article,” In preparation.

  • Melissa Graboyes, Rachel Conner*, Anders Bjorkman, Abdullah Ali, Faiza Abbas, Mwinyi Msellem, Judith Meta, “100 years of Malaria in Zanzibar,” In preparation.

  • Melissa Graboyes and Jennifer Tappan. Global Health Histories in Africa. Ohio University Press. Under contract. Africa in World History Series. In preparation.

  • Melissa Graboyes. A Century of Failures: History, Ethics, and Malaria Elimination in Africa, 1900-2020. Writing in progress.

  • Full NSF CAREER Grant proposal HERE (July 2018)

II. Sharing Results with Research Participants: Establishing Best Practices with Development Economics

ER2 Research Team at the 2024 Africa Evidence Summit. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Judith Meta, Amy Shipow, Ted Miguel, Carson Christiano, Alfredo Burlando, Melissa Graboyes

This is a new collaborative research project, funded with a 3-year NSF Standard award through the Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2) Program area, which is being completed with co-PIs Alfredo Burlando and Ted Miguel of CEGA (UC Berkeley), in addition to Judith Meta assisting in East Africa.

The project will be based in East Africa, and will focus specifically on the ethics and practice of returning research results to African participants. The project will document current practices for disseminating research findings in economics and related social science disciplines. Through surveys and in-depth interviewing, we will also gather perspectives from development economists and African research participants regarding their experiences with RCTs and their expectations about if, when, and how results should be returned. The project will conclude with the development of a best practices guide that will be widely shared among development economists and stakeholder organizations through conferences, workshops, teaching guides, and articles to facilitate further conversation on best practices in this area.

  • Full NSF grant proposal HERE (Feb 2023)

III. Global Health as Local Public Heath Practice: People Who Inject Drugs (PWIDs)

I have co-authored two articles connected to local public health issues, and specifically focused on aspects of care for People who Inject Drugs (PWIDs). Although this isn’t my primary line of research, it’s a meaningful one as it offers students an opportunity to be involved in global health on a local level, emphasizes the importance of meaningful partnership with health organizations and NGOs, and speaks to a direct health need in our Eugene community. This line of inquiry has grown out of my advising of Honors College undergraduates writing their theses while volunteering with the local public health organization, HIV Alliance. Ongoing research in this area will continue with Camille Cioffi of the UO’s Prevention Science Institute, and appropriately motivated undergraduate students.

  • Blake Hardin*, Melissa Graboyes, Derek Kosty, Camille Cioffi. “Vaccine Decision Making Among People Who Inject Drugs: Improving on the WHO’s 3C Model of Vaccine Hesitancy.” Preventive Medicine Reports. 35, 102341. 2023. HERE

  • Eleanor Rochester* and Melissa Graboyes. “Experiences of People who Use Drugs with Naloxone Administration: a Qualitative Study.” Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. 19 (1). 2022: 54-61. HERE

Completed Research: Histories of Medical Research in East Africa

The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research and Ethics in East Africa, 1940-2014 (Ohio University Press, 2015) tells the story of human experimentation and medical ethics in East Africa from 1940 to the present. The book draws on research conducted in more than 15 different places, searching for documents or people who could help reconstruct the history of medical research in the region, and integrates new archival materials from Mwanza and Amani (Tanzania). The first chapter of the book is here and there is a study guide with reading questions, activity ideas, and primary sources available here.

The book was reviewed in: Medical History, Medical Anthropology Quarterly  the International Journal of African Historical Studies , the Journal of Modern African Studies, the Revue Politique Africaine, the Social History of Medicine, Isis, the African Studies Review and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History . It was written about in the Washington Post's blog, The Monkey Cage and here, discussed on the World Bank blog, Development Impact, by the CIHA blog and by the World Bank economist, David Evans. The University of Oregon's "Around the O" covered it here; an interview with Paul Peppis of the Oregon Humanities Center is here; an interview with Jo Weaver and Erik Peterson from the Speaking of Race podcast here. It was the subject of a podcast episode on Ufahamu Africa.

Completed Research: Africa Every Day: Fun, Leisure, and Expressive Culture on the Continent

This co-edited volume was awarded the 2020 African Studies Review “Best Africa-focused Anthology or Edited Collection.” The prize committee recognized the “originality, cohesiveness, and interdisciplinary” of the book, and its commitment to capturing “local voices and practices frequently overlooked in work on Africa.” The book was co-edited with Kemi Balogun, Habib Iddrisu, and Lisa Gilman and was published by Ohio University Press in November 2019. The volume focuses on the creative and dynamic ways that people in African contexts are using their leisure time, having fun, being creative, and engaging in forms of expressive culture. It is meant as a counterpoint to the bulk of materials available for undergraduate African Studies courses that emphasize war, poverty, corruption, disease, and human rights violations. The intended audience is lower-division undergraduate classes in African Studies, Folklore, Anthropology, History, and Sociology. The book was a CHOICE “Recommended” book and has been reviewed in the African Studies Review, African Research & Documentation, Journal of Festive Studies, and Oral History.

*****

Additional Publications (not listed above)

The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research and Ethics in East Africa, 1940-2014. Ohio University Press, 2015. Sample Chapter.

Melissa Graboyes and Hannah Carr*. “Institutional Memory, Institutional Capacity: Narratives of Failed Biomedical Encounters in East Africa.” Canadian Journal of African Studies. 50 (3). 2016: 361-377. Special Issue on Health Capacity, Guest editor, Wenzel Geissler. 51, 1 (2017): 1-17. Article.

Melissa Graboyes. “Introduction: Incorporating Medical Research Into the History of Medicine in East Africa.” Special Issue on the History of Medicine in East Africa. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 47 (3). 2014: 379-398. Article.

Melissa Graboyes. “’The Malaria Imbroglio:’ Ethics, Eradication, and Endings in Pare Taveta, East Africa, 1959-1960.” Special Issue on the History of Medicine in East Africa. International Journal of African Historical Studies. 47 (3). 2014: 445-472.  Article.

2011. Melissa Graboyes. “Chappati Complaints and Biriani Cravings: The Aesthetics of Food in Colonial Zanzibari Institutions.” Journal of Eastern African Studies. 5 (2). 2011: 313-328. Article.

Melissa Graboyes. “Fines, Orders, Fear…and Consent? Medical Research in East Africa, c. 1950s.” Journal of Developing World Bioethics. 10 (1). 2010: 34-41. Article.

Teaching Curricula

“Exploring Disease in Africa: A Curriculum for Advanced High School Students.” Curriculum

"Teaching Ebola: Responses, Ethics, and the Future." Curriculum

Catalogs

Catalog to historical materials housed at Amani Station, Tanzania. National Institute of Medical Research. October 2008. Catalog

Other

“Learning From the Past: The Future of Malaria in Africa.” Issues in Brief, (Boston: Boston University Pardee Center), 2008. Article