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Author Meets Critics: Dr. Susan Erikson’s Book Launch
Join in for an electric conversation with Dr. Susan Erikson, an SFU Distinguished Professor, who studies highly complex political economies that shape human health. Her new book, Investable! When Pandemic Risk meets Speculative Finance – A Cautionary Tale (MIT Press, 2025), which she traveled over 420,000 research kilometres to write, is about the financialization of global health and capitalist speculation repurposed as save-the-world innovation.
Dr. Erikson will be in conversation with Anke Kessler and Iveoma Udevi-Aruevoru in an open session about her work, research, and the story behind Investable! The book will be available to buy at the venue courtesy of Cross and Crows.
Refreshments and snacks will be served at this downtown venue.
This event is hosted with the support of the Digital Democracies Institute, the School of International Studies, and the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.
About Investable!
In a world increasingly defined by crisis, bankers behind the scenes turn catastrophes into financial securities that can be bought and sold. Offering new insights into how the excesses of capitalism shape emergency preparedness, Investable! is an ethnography of the World Bank bonds designed to solve health funding shortfalls by getting international investors to gamble on future crises. Erikson, who traveled over 420,000 kilometres conducting research for the book, takes readers from West African roads to Wall Street to Boston data modeling firms to tell the stories of the people, the special interests, and the logics of pandemic bonds. Written for a smart general audience concerned about capitalism’s effect on human health, Investable! will appeal to people working in global development, health care and data modeling, international affairs, and anyone who wants to better understand how the worlds of high finance shape how we care for one another.