Kiran Kumbhar - Colonial Legacies: The Complex History of Colonialism and Public Health in India

Kiran Kumbhar is a historian of science and former physician whose research focuses on the history of medicine, healthcare policy, and public health in India and the Global South. He earned his MBBS in medicine in India, an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University. His dissertation examined public trust in the biomedical profession and the role of caste‑based privilege in post‑independence Indian medicine. He has taught courses at Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins University, and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond academia, Kumbhar writes widely on health policy, medical history, and social issues for both scholarly and public audiences.