Bertrand Taithe
Professor of Cultural History, University of Manchester
I am Professor of Cultural History at the University of Manchester since 2000. I have been editor of the European Review of History- revue europeenne d'histoire since 1994. I have been a founding member and executive director of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (www.hcri.ac.uk) which combines the research interests of colleagues in the humanities and opens a dialogue with humanitarian workers and medical practitioners. Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust combine support for the Humanitarian Archive Emergency (HAE) project in partnership with The University of Manchester Library. This co-funded initiative responds to a critical shortfall in the digital infrastructure underpinning humanitarian and global health research. My research interests are primarily on humanitarianism and humanitarian aid practices. I am interested in the history of medicine, the history of missions and colonisation in the French colonial empire between the Second Empire and 1939 and the history of humanitarian aid more widely defined.
EXPs by Bertrand Taithe
From the battlefields of the 19th century to today’s wars and humanitarian crises, this conversation opens vital reflections on how modern compassion was invented, organised, and politicised — and why preserving humanitarian archives may be essential to protecting humanity itself.
From Biafra and Cambodia to refugee camps and attacks on hospitals, humanitarian medicine raises fundamental questions about care, neutrality, witnessing, global inequality, and the fragile human systems created to respond to war, displacement, and suffering.
The humanitarian archive emergency symbolizes the fragile struggle to preserve evidence, memory, and humanity in times of violence and humanitarian crisis. This conversation opens urgent discussions about reassessing humanitarian law, addressing war crimes, and reaffirming the need for accountability for all those involved.