Research
On the dissertation
Comparing across the national border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Vitale's dissertation is interested in rural healthcare access in the Global South and how an individual’s constant navigation between state and non-state health services elucidates important ways that individuals are included in or excluded from national and transnational health services. It collects data at three scales of analysis: in four rural border sites (the local), in the capital cities of Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince (the national), and in places where transnational actors are present (see map below). Understanding the concept “citizenship” as both unevenly endowed, and as containing characteristics that go beyond the national inscription of who is and who is not a legal citizen, Vitale's project introduces the term “Health Citizenship” to describe the often-overlapping political relationships through which health services are endowed. It aims to theorize how these relationships behave in this current era of global health by drawing together work in social policy studies and the global health literature to move forward effective scholarship on healthcare access that recognizes the fragmented pieces of the healthcare puzzle.
It is set in a larger historical context of the Alma Ata declaration of 1978, which recognizes the government responsibility to endow populations with health rights, and in the more modern context of increasing migration flows between Global South countries. Considering these two contexts, health rights have become complicated not only by limited state capacity and political goodwill in migrant-receiving nations, but also by a proliferation of health services provided by foreign aid, NGOs, charities, and corporations.
It is set in a larger historical context of the Alma Ata declaration of 1978, which recognizes the government responsibility to endow populations with health rights, and in the more modern context of increasing migration flows between Global South countries. Considering these two contexts, health rights have become complicated not only by limited state capacity and political goodwill in migrant-receiving nations, but also by a proliferation of health services provided by foreign aid, NGOs, charities, and corporations.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Global Health
Vitale’s work in AI positions the technology as both a continuation of and a disruption to legacies of past technological interventions in the global health enterprise. In a recent peer-reviewed article currently undergoing a revise-and-resubmit, she observes the power dynamics that underpin how the AI agenda is defined and implemented in global health, and situates AI as the latest in a long line of technological interventions in the global health space that avoid addressing deeply-seated political and economic determinants of health inequities; a phenomenon that Vitale and her co-author call the ‘politics of avoidance.’
She has presented this work to Kaiser Permanente’s Ethics Board, at the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) 2023 annual meeting, at the International Studies Association’s (ISA) 2023 West conference, and to UCSC’s Humanities in the Age of AI research cluster. Vitale recently accepted an invitation to co-present at Kaiser Permenente’s Grand Rounds event in the summer of 2024, and a residency position at The Brocher Foundation in Geneva for a project entitled "Diagonalizing Global Health with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? On the Ethics and Evolving Algorithms of Health Systems Strengthening".
She has presented this work to Kaiser Permanente’s Ethics Board, at the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) 2023 annual meeting, at the International Studies Association’s (ISA) 2023 West conference, and to UCSC’s Humanities in the Age of AI research cluster. Vitale recently accepted an invitation to co-present at Kaiser Permenente’s Grand Rounds event in the summer of 2024, and a residency position at The Brocher Foundation in Geneva for a project entitled "Diagonalizing Global Health with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? On the Ethics and Evolving Algorithms of Health Systems Strengthening".
Recently featured on...
UC-Santa Cruz Global Engagement "Exploring Healthcare Access Challenges on the Dominican Republic Border through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program"
University of California Newscenter "Two From UC Santa Cruz Awarded Fulbright Grants"
COVID Calls podcast, invited panelist: “EP #357: Researchers’ Roundtable”
University of California Newscenter "Two From UC Santa Cruz Awarded Fulbright Grants"
COVID Calls podcast, invited panelist: “EP #357: Researchers’ Roundtable”
Selected Publications
Fischer, Sara; Vitale, Lucia; Agutu, Lisa Akinyi; Matt Kavanaugh. “Framing access, innovation and the public good in a pandemic: Global negotiations for a COVID-19 TRIPS waiver at the WTO” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. 2023.
Sparke, Matthew; Vitale, Lucia. “COVID’s Co-Pathogenisis” Syndemics Magazine. 2022.
Vitale, Lucia. Virtual Trust: Building Confidence at a Distance. Georgetown’s Digital Fieldwork website. 2021.
Vitale, Lucia; Browe, Dennis. “Race, Contagion and the Nation” University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). 2021.
Rehrig, J., Vitale, L., Moore, L., “Evaluating Patients Using Mission Services in the Dominican Republic” International Journal of Academic Medicine. 2019.
Under Review
Vitale, Lucia; Shipton, Leah. "Artificial Intelligence and the Politics of Avoidance in Global Health"
Vitale, Lucia; Cheikhali, Sarah; Higazy, Ingy; Howard, Mark; McLaughlin, Henry; Segura, Gabriela; Sparke, Matthew. “Alternative Archives: Researching Politics with Chunks of Reality”
Sparke, Matthew; Vitale, Lucia. “COVID’s Co-Pathogenisis” Syndemics Magazine. 2022.
Vitale, Lucia. Virtual Trust: Building Confidence at a Distance. Georgetown’s Digital Fieldwork website. 2021.
Vitale, Lucia; Browe, Dennis. “Race, Contagion and the Nation” University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). 2021.
Rehrig, J., Vitale, L., Moore, L., “Evaluating Patients Using Mission Services in the Dominican Republic” International Journal of Academic Medicine. 2019.
Under Review
Vitale, Lucia; Shipton, Leah. "Artificial Intelligence and the Politics of Avoidance in Global Health"
Vitale, Lucia; Cheikhali, Sarah; Higazy, Ingy; Howard, Mark; McLaughlin, Henry; Segura, Gabriela; Sparke, Matthew. “Alternative Archives: Researching Politics with Chunks of Reality”