Life Stories of Cuban Internationalists Healthcare Professionals
The Researchers
Professor St茅phanie Panichelli鈥態atallaLink opens in a new window is a leading scholar in Cuban Studies and life鈥憇tories research, with a long鈥憇tanding focus on Cuba鈥檚 cultural, social, and global health landscapes. Over the past two decades, she has developed an extensive body of work exploring how personal narratives illuminate experiences of social justice, solidarity, and medical internationalism. Her fieldwork in Cuba, the United States, and Tanzania provides unique insight into the lived realities of Cuban internationalist doctors. Situated within the School for Cross鈥慒aculty Studies, her interdisciplinary approach combines Medical Humanities, narrative inquiry, and global health perspectives, reflecting Warwick鈥檚 commitment to research that amplifies diverse and under鈥憆epresented voices.
The Challenge
Cuba鈥檚 internationalist medical programme is one of the world鈥檚 most extensive and enduring global health initiatives, yet the personal experiences of the doctors who participate in these missions remain largely absent from mainstream scholarship and public understanding. Discussions often focus on political narratives or international diplomacy, obscuring the human stories at the heart of this global health practice. This project addresses the challenge of recognising and analysing global health from the perspective of those who deliver it. By documenting the life stories of Cuban internationalist doctors, the research highlights how identity, emotion, professional ethics, and personal transformation shape the experience of medical solidarity. It also challenges dominant Global North frameworks that define humanitarianism and medical aid, offering instead a perspective grounded in Cuban histories, values, and social imaginaries. In doing so, the project fills a critical gap within Medical Humanities and contributes to broader debates about transnational care and global health equity.
Our Approach
The project uses an interdisciplinary narrative鈥慴ased methodology rooted in Medical Humanities, oral history, and life鈥憇tory research. Through in鈥慸epth interviews with Cuban internationalist doctors鈥攃onducted in Cuba, the United States, and Tanzania鈥攖he study explores how participants articulate memory, identity, emotion, and professional purpose. These personal narratives are analysed alongside archival materials, policy documents, and public discourse to situate individual experiences within wider historical and geopolitical contexts. This combined approach allows for a nuanced and human鈥慶entred understanding of Cuban medical internationalism, capturing how global health work is lived, felt, and interpreted by those who carry it out.
Our Impact
This project generates meaningful impact across academic, societal, and pedagogical spheres, aligning strongly with Warwick鈥檚 mission to produce research that is globally engaged, interdisciplinary, and socially relevant. Academic impact: The project contributes new knowledge to Medical Humanities, global health studies, and Cuban Studies by centring the voices of practitioners from the Global South. Through its narrative approach, it expands understandings of medical solidarity, ethics, and identity formation, challenging frameworks that traditionally privilege Western humanitarian models. The resulting book and associated publications will offer rare empirical depth and become a valuable resource for scholars examining global health, Latin America, and transnational care. Societal and public impact: By amplifying the life stories of Cuban internationalist doctors, the research humanises a global health programme often reduced to diplomatic or ideological debates. Sharing these narratives through public talks, media engagement, and outreach activities provides audiences with a more nuanced appreciation of the motivations, dilemmas, and emotional realities underpinning medical work abroad. In doing so, the project supports more informed conversations about global health equity, South鈥慡outh cooperation, and the role of solidarity in international medical practice. Overall, the project deepens public and academic understanding of global health by foregrounding the lived experiences of those who enact medical solidarity on the ground.