Antimicrobial Resistance: Just Transitions for Shared Futures

This special issue of Public Humanities reflects on ‘Just Transitions’ as a conceptual framework to draw out injustice, marginality and inequality arising out of and linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The authors contemplate what an equitable and sustainable future with AMR might look like, and how principles of solidarity, equality, inclusivity and sustainability could inform transitions towards shared futures with the microbial world.

Antimicrobial Resistance: Just Transitions for Shared Futures is co-edited by Sheila Varadan, Sara de Wit, Miriam Waltz, and Claas Kirchhelle, who also wrote the editorial.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/pub.2025.10093. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Join the launch webinar for this special issue on 31 March 2026!

 

Author(s) / editor(s)

Sheila Varadan, Sara de Wit, Miriam Waltz, Claas Kirchhelle

About the author(s) / editor(s)

Sheila Varadan is an Assistant Professor of Children’s Rights and Global Health in a joint appointment with the Department of Health and Child Law and the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL). Sheila is also part of the Leiden University Network for Health in Africa (LUNHA), an interdisciplinary research hub focusing on global health, based at the ASCL.

Sara de Wit is a Assistant Professor at the Institute for History with a joint appointment at the African Studies Centre Leiden. Trained in cultural anthropology and African Studies, Sara has long-term fieldwork experience in southeast Madagascar, the Bamenda Grassfields in Cameroon and Maasailand in northern Tanzania.

Miriam Waltz is assistant professor in gender justice and health technologies with a joint appointment between the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology and the African Studies Centre Leiden. Her research focuses on the development of an interdisciplinary hub on health technologies in Africa: the Leiden University Network for Health in Africa (LUNHA).

Claas Kirchhelle is a historian of 'bugs and drugs'. Based at University College Dublin, Kirchelle's research the history of microbial environments, infectious disease, and the development, marketing, and regulation of antibiotics and vaccines.

Full text, catalogue, and publisher website

Publisher website: 
Cambridge University Press

How to order

Access the special issue on the Publisher's website.

Posted on 9 March 2026, last modified on 19 March 2026