Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights

Coursework

Prerequisites:
None, although a background in Portuguese, Spanish, or another Romance language is highly recommended.

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The interdisciplinary coursework in the Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights program explores the various aspects influencing public health planning and practice in Brazil, including historical, social, economic, religious, and ideological factors. Students may attend lectures by government health workers, political activists, researchers, doctors, and nurses on topics ranging from domestic violence and family health, to Afro Brazilian dance and culture. Students use the knowledge they gain through coursework and field study to complete an Independent Study Project on a topic of their choosing.

The Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights program includes the following courses. Course descriptions can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer.

Public Health and Race in Brazil syllabus (PDF)
(IPBH 3000 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
An interdisciplinary course conducted in English and Portuguese (with interpretation). The course focuses on public healthcare issues and community welfare policies, realities, and issues of concern in Brazil, particularly within the northeast region. Study of the Brazilian national health system as well as alternative healthcare practices is undertaken. Students observe firsthand the functioning of the healthcare system at the local level.

Human Rights and Healthcare in Brazil syllabus (PDF)
(IPBH 3005 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
An interdisciplinary course conducted in English and Portuguese (with interpretation). The course focuses on the impacts of social determinants of health on diverse Brazilian populations. An intensive examination is conducted on quality healthcare as a human right, as designated by the United Nations. A strong focus is placed on the situation of typically marginalized groups such as the African descendant population and indigenous people.

Intensive Language Study: Portuguese for the Health Sciences I syllabus (PDF)
(PORT 1000 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
Intensive Language Study: Portuguese for the Health Sciences II syllabus (PDF)
(PORT 1500 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
Intensive Language Study: Portuguese for the Health Sciences III syllabus (PDF)
(PORT 2000 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
Emphasis on speaking and comprehension skills through classroom and field instruction. Special attention is given to medical and health terminology in Portuguese. Based on in-country evaluation, including oral proficiency testing, students are placed in beginning or intermediate classes. Special arrangements are available for advanced speakers of Portuguese.

Public Health Research Methods and Ethics syllabus (PDF)
(IPBH 3500 / 3 credits / 45 class hours)
An introductory course in research methods focusing on how to collect, analyze, integrate, and report social and public health data to critically understand and evaluate program-related public health issues. Introduction to the Independent Study Project. Field studies may include designing a research project; writing a research proposal; interviewing; surveys; maintaining a field journal. Specific public health field study methods include concepts and objectives of scientific research; basic techniques used in public health research; data collection and analysis; epidemiology and considerations in the Brazilian context; ethical issues related to public health projects and research and the World Learning/SIT Human Subjects Review Policy. Observation and participation in community health projects.

Independent Study Project syllabus (PDF)
(ISPR 3000 / 4 credits / 60 class hours)
Conducted in Salvador, elsewhere in the state of Bahia, or in another approved location appropriate to the project in the Brazilian northeast. Sample topic areas: the health situation of adolescent mothers and their offspring; Afro-Brazilian health issues; factors affecting well-being in a quilombo community; healing in the Candomblé tradition; psychiatric illness and community outreach; geriatrics; drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs in Salvador; Brazilian AIDS policy; empowerment of women; policy issues in access; pre- and postnatal care.

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Credits: 16

Duration: 15 weeks

Program Base: Salvador

Language Study: Portuguese

Prerequisites: None, although a background in Portuguese, Spanish, or another Romance language is highly recommended. Read more...