Robert Huish

The Global Development Primer Podcast (GDP)

Dr. Huish is the host of the Podcast "GDP" which is the Podcast on all issues related to International Development. Click here to listen.

Pandemic! The Class

In response to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Huish offers a course on managing pandemics through cooperation and collaboration. Click here for more. 

Research Interests

With support from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition, I am currently working on "The Consequences and Outcomes of Cultural Stigma from COVID-19 Ordinances." 

Broadly, my research explores global health inequities, and the role of economic sanctions in shaping those inequities, as well as the role of social justice in resisting them.  My current research looks at how donor nations are responding to the call for greater global health equity, and specifically how economic coercive measures (sanctions) impact the capacity of many countires in the global South to work with each other to improve health for all.  

I also pursue research on how sanctions impact human rights and security issues.  In particular this work exposes how countries like Russia and North Korea continue to violate human rights, and how it pursues military aggression despite global isolation and international sanctions. Click here for my interviews on: CBC's The Current; CBC's The National; and on CTV Atlantic

Other areas of research include sport for development  and medical internationalism with special attention to Cuba, and how this facilitates comprehensive development.

At the moment I am currently working on the following projects:

• Human Rights Activism in North Korea. 

• The impacts of climate change and health in pacific island countries)
• The Place of Activism in the Future of the University
• Global Health Ethics
• The Impacts of Sanctions on Health and Security.

Teaching Interests

(global health; activism & resistance; experiential learning)

My teaching interests include topics on global health, poverty and human rights, neoliberal globalization, and methods of activism. 
 All the courses that I currently teach include an activist component that affords students the chance to passionately engage with issues of inequity and social justice.   

For more on this approach, check out this interview with Ana Maria Teremonti on CBC’s The Current, 
as well as the Globe and Mail’s Our Time To Lead Series

I'm also happy to introduce a new course on Pandemic management in the time of COVID-19.  "Pandemic! The Class" combines podcast learning with game simulation to develop collaborative management strategies for students and policy makers.

Books

Huish, Robert. (2013) “Where no doctor has gone before: Cuba’s place in the global health landscape.”  Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Tiessen, Rebecca, & Robert Huish, (eds). (2014). Globetrotting or Global Citizenship? Perils and potential of international experiential learning. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

Huish, Robert. (2021). “Global citizenship amid COVID-19: why climate change and a pandemic spell the end  of international experiential learning”. The Canadian Journal of Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2020.1862071

Ergler, C., Georgeou, N., Lovell, S., Huish, R. (2023). Aotearoa New Zealand: Is the grass really greener here?  Social, poitical, and cultural implications of COVID-19 in New Zealand. Pandemics, States and Societies in Asia-Pacific 201-216

Georgeou, C., Buhler King, C., Tame, L., Ergler, C., Huish, R., (2023). COVID-19 stigma, Australia and slow violence: An analysis of 21 months of COVID news reporting.  Australian Journal of Social Issues.  58(4), 787 - 804.

Huish, R. Ergler, C., Georgeou, N., (2022).  Guest Editorial: A Pandemic of global inequality - a special issue on how COVID-19 deepened social inequalities on a global scale.  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. 41(1), 1 - 2.

Ergler, Christina, Robert Huish, Nichole Georgeou, Jeremy Simons, Olivia Eyles,  Yi Li, Tinran Deng, Lilian Tame. (2021).  COVID-19 Stigma in New Zealand: Are we really a ‘team’ of five million? New Zealand Geographer. https://doi.org/10.1111/nzg.12313

Huish, R. (2020). Solidarity Trumps Fear: Cuba is a Model for Global Health in the 21st Century. Journal of Latin American Geography, 19(3), 296-301.

Huish, Robert (2020).  “Cuba” in Georgeou N., & Hawksley C. (eds). State Responses to COVID-19: a global snapshot at 1 June 2020. Sydney: Western Sydney University Press.

Huish, Robert (2020).  “Canada” in Georgeou N., & Hawksley C. (eds). State Responses to COVID-19: a global snapshot at 1 June 2020. Sydney: Western Sydney University Press.

Huish, Robert (2018). Revolutionary Games: Cuba’s Approach to Sport for Development, in Darnell, S., et al. (eds). The Rutledge Handbook of Sport for Development and Peace. London: Rutledge.

Kirk, Emily, & Robert Huish. (2018). Transexuals’ Right to Health? Cuban Case Study. Health & Human Rights Journal. 20(2), 215 - 222.

Huish, Robert (2018).  Making Sanctions Smart Again: Why Maritime Sanctions Have Worked Against North Korea. Asia Policy. 13(3), 42 - 48.

Huish, Robert (2018). Going where no one should go: Experiential Learning without making the world your classroom. Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education. 6(1) 2 - 21.

Huish, Robert. (2018).  No Secret Cure: Why the 1970s Hold the Secret to Cuba’s Health Paradox in Kirk, Emily, Clayfield, Anna, & Story, Isabel (eds.) Cuba’s Forgotten Decade: How the 1970s Shaped the Revolution.  New York: Lexington.

Huish, Robert, (2018), “Poverty, Hunger and Inequality”, in E-Learning Module on Operationalizing the Right to Development in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, Kanade, M; Puvimanasinghe S; Aginam O; Schwartz P eds. (Geneva, Ciudad Colon and Kuala Lumpur: UN, UPEACE and UNU-IIGH), Chapter 4.

Huish, Robert (2017). Why Cuban Solidarity was Ebola’s Antidote: How Cuban Medical Internationalism is Radically Changing Health Geographies in the Global South.  Human Geography. 10(3), 54 - 70.

Huish, Robert (2017). How to Sink the Hermit Kingdom:  Improving Maritime Sanctions against North Korea.  Canadian Naval Review. 13(2). 5- 10.

Huish, Robert (2017). The Failure of Maritime Sanctions Enforcement against North Korea. Asia Policy. 23(1), 131 – 152.

Huish, Robert. (2017). “Health and Development,” in Richardson, Douglas, et al., The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Darnell, Simon & Robert Huish (2016).  “Learning through South-South development: Cuban-African partnerships in sport and physical education.”  Compare: A Journal of International Education. Doi: 10.1080/03057925.2016.1227237

Huish, Robert. (2016). “Wanting to Care: A Comparison of the ethics of health worker migration in Cuba and the Philippines,” in Luginaah, Isaac, Bezner Kerr, Rachael (eds.) Geographies of Development and Health. London: Ashgate.

Darnell, Simon & Robert Huish. (2015). Cuban Sport Policy and South – South Cooperation: An Exploration of the Escuela Internacional de Educación Física y Deporte. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. 7(1), 123 – 140.

Darnell, Simon & Robert Huish (2015). “Cuban Sport and the Challenges of South – South Solidarity,” for Hayhurst, L. and Kay, T. (eds) Beyond Sport for Development: Transnational Perspectives on Theory, Policy and Practice. London: Routledge.

Huish, Robert. (2014). Why Does Cuba 'Care' So Much? Understanding the Epistemology of Solidarity in Global Health Outreach. Public Health Ethics;
7(3), 261 – 276.

Huish, Robert, & Simon Darnell. (2014). “Cuban Sport Development: Building Capacity from el Parque to the Podium,”  in Brenner, Philip, Marguerite Rose Jiménez, John M. Kirk, & William Leogrande, (eds). A Contemporary Cuban Reader – 2^nd Edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. 367 – 372.

Huish, Robert (2014). The Heart of the Matter: The Impacts of Cuban Medical Internationalism in the global South. Cuba in a Global Context: International Relations, Internationalism, and Transnationalism. Cathie Krull (ed.) Gainsville: University Press of Florida. 176 – 191.

Huish, Robert (2013). “Dissent 101: Teaching the ‘dangerous knowledge’ of practices of activism.” Canadian Journal of International Development Studies. 34(2). 364- 383.

Huish, Robert, Thomas Carter & Simon Darnell, (2013). The (Soft) Power of Sport: The Comprehensive and Contradictory Strategies of Cuba’s Sport-Based Internationalism.  International Journal of Cuban Studies. 5(1), 26 – 41.

Huish, Robert (2012). “The Ethical Conundrum of International Health Electives in Medical Education.” Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education. 2(1).  1-19.

Huish, Robert, Simon Darnell (2012). “Solidarity, counter-hegemony and development: Exploring Cuba’s sport-based internationalism. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 36(71), 139 – 164.

Collins, Damian, Sébastien Flueret, Robert Huish, Anne Cécile Hoyez,  (2011). Regards croisés sur les geographies de la santé Anglophone et Francophone, in Santé de géographie. Paris: Press Economica-Anthropos.

Huish, Robert (2011). Punching Above its Weight: Cuba’s use of sport for South-South Solidarity. Third World Quarterly 32(3). 417 – 433.

Evert, Jessica, Robert Huish Gary Heit, Scott Loeliger, Evaleen Jones, Steve Schmidbauer (2011). Global Health Ethics. Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics. Judy Iles & Barbara Sahakian, (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Huish, Robert and W. George Lovell (2010). Bajo los volcanes: La Influenca de Guatemala en José Martí. Mesoamérica. 52. 87 – 110.

Spiegel, Jerry and Robert Huish (2009). Canadian Foreign Aid for Global Health: Human Security Opportunity Lost. Canadian Foreign Policy. 15(3) 60 – 84.

Huish, Robert and John M. Kirk (2009). Cuban Medical Internationalism in Africa: The Threat of a Dangerous Example. The Latin Americanist. 53(3) 125  - 139.

Huish, Robert (2009). How Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine challenges the Ethics of Physician Migration. Social Science & Medicine. 69(3) 301 – 304.

Parkes Margot, Spiegel Jerry, Breilh Jaime, Cabarcas Fabio, Huish Robert, Yassi Annalee. (2009). Promoting the health of marginalized populations in Ecuador through international collaboration and educational innovations Bulletin of the World Health Organisation.  87(4), 312 – 319.

Huish, Robert. (2008). Human security and food security in geographic study: Knowledge translation, concepts and elusive theory.  Geography Compass. 2(5) 1386 – 1403.

Spiegel, Jerry, Robert Huish, Klaudia Dmitrienko, Andrea A. Cortinois (2008). Canadian and Australian Health Aid, in Hanssonm Emily et. al. (eds.) Global Health Watch 2. London: Zed Books. 317 – 333.

Huish, Robert (2008).  Going where no doctor has gone before:  The role of Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine in meeting the needs of some of the world's most vulnerable populations. Public Health. 122(6) 552- 557.  (WHO International Joint Special Issue, “Towards a Scaling-up of education for health workers.”)

Huish, Robert & Jerry Spiegel. (2008). Integrating health and human security into foreign policy: Cuba’s surprising success. International Journal of Cuban Studies. 1(1) 1 – 13.

Huish, Robert and John M. Kirk (2007). Cuban Medical Internationalism: the development of the Latin American School of Medicine and human-resource-based healthcare provision. Latin American Perspectives. 34(6) 77 - 92.