An Interview With Les Roberts

ePulse: What is the name of the program you are affiliated with?

Les Roberts:I teach in the School of Public Health at Columbia in a program on Forced Migration and Health.

ePulse: Do you consider yourself an activist?

LR: No, I consider myself an advocate. That’s different from an activist. I guess I think every one of my opinions is open to be changed if evidence shows me that my assumptions were wrong. I think that makes me a scientist.

ePulse: I was going to say, “more so than a scientist”, but you have already answered that. I was going to ask how you see science and activism intersecting, but how about if we say, “how do you see science and advocacy intersecting?”

LR: Science defines problems for us. It’s not the only thing it does, but in public health, that’s one of the main things it does. When the response to a problem isn’t appropriate, isn’t adequate, the scientist who made that measurement - who understands the meaning of that measurement - suddenly then has a responsibility to society to continuously point out that that response is inadequate or inappropriate, as the case may be ... just like a legal scholar has a unique responsibility to point out to society when something is unconstitutional.

ePulse: Well, the next few questions are based on activism. I didn’t expect the “no” (Les laughs), but we’ll continue on anyway. When did you first consider yourself an advocate?

LR: In 1993, I went to Bosnia and I didn’t want to go. It was during the Clinton administration and the State Department wanted an assessment done. I had just been married and two days after my wife moved to Atlanta I had to go to Bosnia and leave her alone in Atlanta and I wasn’t happy with it.