Portland, Maine – The Center for Global Humanities at the University of New England will host James Webb, Jr., professor and director of African Studies at Colby College who will discuss, “The Trouble with Malaria in Africa” on Monday, January 28, 2013 on UNE’s Portland Campus in the WCHP Lecture Hall in Parker Pavillion. A reception will be held at 5 p.m. prior to the lecture in the UNE Art Gallery.

Webb is the author of “Humanity’s Burden: A Global History of Malaria (Cambridge University Press: New York, 2009).

His lecture will focus on: What can the study of antimalaria campaigns in the past tell us about the present? In what ways has the malaria problem itself changed over time? In what ways can the field of historical epidemiology and global health history improve the practice of public health?

President Obama’s Malaria Initiative, the Global Fund, and the Gates Foundation are currently funding an ambitious program of malaria reduction with a long-term goal of eradicating the disease in Africa. In the 1950s and 1960s, the World Health Organization, undertook a series of pilot projects to develop protocols to eradicate malaria in tropical Africa. The projects encountered difficulties that were not overcome.

UNE’s Center for Global Humanities is in its fourth year of programming. The Center is a public forum designed to introduce students and members of the public to the exploration of the great issues facing humanity today.

Anouar Majid, Director of the Center, says: “UNE’s Center for Global Humanities has filled a much needed gap in the cultural life of the greater Portland area as well as the whole state of Maine. We offer our programming free to folks wherever they may be. The issues we highlight are of crucial importance to the health of our planet—that’s why our videos are watched nationally and globally. I invite all to be part of this unique experience.”

Events are held on UNE’s Portland Campus, and many are also broadcast live at the Bangor Public Library and the Cary Library in Houlton. For more information, visit www.une.edu/cgh.

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