Dr. Abi-Rached is Lecturer in History of Science at Harvard University as well as an Associate Researcher at Sciences Po (Médialab). Her research focuses on the politics of life, health, and wealth with a particular interest in the politics of health as it plays out in poor and developing countries as well as in the Middle East. Her interests and perspective lie at the intersection of history, philosophy, ethics, medicine, and policy.
Abi-Rached was originally trained as a medical doctor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and holds a Medical Doctorate from the American University of Beirut (2006), an M.Sc. in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics (2007), and a Ph.D. in History of Science from Harvard University (2017). Her dissertation explored the history of madness in the Levant, as well as the ethics of care, and the politics of precarious lives and sectarianism. Her master's thesis, which was motivated by growing up in a society marked by political violence, was on the ethics of war, in specific, on post-war ethics and the role "mental health" could play in the reconstruction of post-traumatized selves. The aim was to fill a gap in the literature on the so-called "Just War Theory." This detour from medicine to policy and ethics was possible thanks to a generous support from the LSE's PJD Wiles Scholarship.
