What would Gregory Maskarinec & Paul Farmer do?

The last two iterations of the Humanism, Empathy, Social Justice, and Global Health Symposia were coordinated by Gregory Maskarinec, cultural anthropologist and University of Hawaiʻi (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM)’s Director of the Office of Global Health and International Medicine at the time. Paul Farmer joined us remotely from Rwanda for the February 2022 Symposium, delivering two talks in two days. Paul died four days after his second talk – an incalculable loss for the world. Gregory had been ill since 2020, and was not expected to live much longer after the February 2022 symposium. Paul had expressed his sadness at Gregory’s impending demise, but ironically he died ahead of Gregory, who passed away in June 2022. Another incalculable loss.

For this essay, I have drawn on the conversations, correspondence, their writings, and an article that I wrote together with Gregory and Paul. I am led to believe that at the current juncture, Gregory and Paul would have spoken out against the genocidal assault on the Palestinian people.