Published: 06/06/2023


The Spring 2023 issue of “Dædalus”, the open-access publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, takes a transdisciplinary approach to understanding the dilemmas facing humanitarian health actors, and to finding room for innovation in humanitarian health delivery.

The product of a three-year initiative, it was co-edited by CIGH Core Leader Dr. Paul H. Wise along with Jennifer M. Welsh at McGill University and Jaime Sepúlveda of USCF. It addresses the immense strain that humanitarian aid is under after decades of non-enforcement of international humanitarian law and changing norms of modern warfare that often target civilians and health care workers.

Recognizing that shared compassion cannot be proscribed but must be felt, the issue also draws on the power of the arts, and features paintings, poetry, photography, fiction, and creative nonfiction by artists whose lives have been shaped by violent conflict and displacement.