Global Health

“I came to really understand the importance of going abroad to studying global health… Getting to know healers and touring hospitals and NGOs was a wonderful way to connect with the realities of healthcare in Madagascar. I now understand not only academic points of view, but individual, traditional, and personal approaches to health, as well.”

Emma Sheldon, Madagascar: Traditional Medicine and Healthcare Systems program

Students working at a public health fair on the Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights program.

Download the catalog: 2013 Programs in Global Health - PDF

SIT Study Abroad programs in global health consider diverse wellness systems by examining the strengths and limitations of competing health care delivery models. Students are challenged to consider the assumptions, practices, and perspectives associated with both traditional and allopathic health care from distinct cultural contexts.

Topics of inquiry include:

  • Public health care planning and practice
  • Traditional healing
  • The intersections between health and development, race and ethnicity, and gender
  • Infrastructure and access to health care
  • Social exclusion in public health outreach programs
  • Concepts of health in the host society

With a strong portfolio of health programs in diverse regions, students can choose to examine community health care projects in rural Kenya; concepts and practices of health by Candomblé healers in Brazil; or the role of pharmaceutical enterprises, international trade, and intellectual property rights concerning medicines in Switzerland.

SIT Study Abroad’s global health programs incorporate academic partnerships, community-based learning, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Students learn from educators, academics, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, community leaders, traditional healers, governmental officials, public health activists, and health care professionals.