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IHP Health and Community

Globalization, Culture, and Care

Learn how communities around the world understand and strive for health and well-being.

At a Glance

Credits

16

Prerequisites

Relevant previous coursework recommended

Courses taught in

English

Dates

Aug 28 – Dec 10

Program Countries

Argentina, India, South Africa, United States

Program Base

USA, India, South Africa, Argentina

Critical Global Issue of Study

Global Health & Well-being

Development & Inequality

Overview

Why Study Global Health and Community?

Health practices differ widely around the globe, but health inequities—between economic divides, urban and rural—are increasing exponentially everywhere. Across four continents, compare health systems and strategies, community well-being, and multiple factors affecting human health in different contexts, on both local and global scales. Journey from mega-cities to rural villages to take a holistic, interdisciplinary look at how communities around the world define what it is to achieve and maintain health.

With this scope of experiences, you will learn to critically analyze some of the most pressing health issues of this global moment such as social inequities, chronic and infectious disease, climate change, and the economic drivers of healthcare. Through site visits and research training with an array of health practitioners, government officials, and activists, you will explore health at both individual and population-wide levels, and witness how positioning health as a human right impacts policy and health outcomes at all levels. Finally, you will explore the challenges all citizens face amid mounting obstacles to healthcare access, while strengthening your ability to understand, interpret, and compare the socio-cultural, ecological, economic, political, and biological factors that shape and predict human health.

Explore a Day in the Life of an IHP student!

Photos on this page may depict program sites from previous semesters. Please view the Program Sites section of this page to see where this program will travel in a specific semester.

Highlights

  • Explore unique localities and gain insights into healthcare across continents.
  • Conduct in-depth, research practice in radically varied contexts.
  • Experience rare opportunities to interact with healthcare leaders and local experts.
  • Witness healthcare access from the sprawling megalopolis to the rural village.

Prerequisites

None, but previous college-level coursework or background in public health, anthropology, biology, or other related fields is strongly recommended.

program map

Program Sites

Washington, DC, United States

(10 days)

The seat of government of one of the richest nations in the world and hub of international policy-making, Washington, DC, is also home to some of the greatest wealth disparities of any city in the United States. Explore the city’s diverse neighborhoods; meet with activists, government officials, and global health experts at non-governmental organizations; study the many social determinants of health; and develop your own perspectives before exploring similar issues internationally.

Delhi, India

(Four+ weeks)

India is a world power with a burgeoning economy and nearly 18 percent of the global population. In Delhi, India’s capital, consider the impact and response to the pandemic while examining how marginalized populations fight against infectious diseases like HIV and tuberculosis, while facing a lack of access to clean water and food. Study health disparities among various populations including sexual and religious minorities, as well as the physical health challenges of farmers and laborers moving in and out of urban spaces. Gain insights into potential solutions from distinguished academics, NGOs, local health experts, and government leaders. An excursion to Udaipur-Jaipur allows you to learn about Rajasthan State’s public healthcare system, from tertiary super specialized care to the village level. Udaipur city is known for its beautiful lakes and splendid green Aravalli mountains. As the home of Bhil tribes who maintain their indigenous system of medicine and traditional medical practices, this location offers a unique opportunity to learn about tribal health. In Jaipur, you will meet with state healthcare policymakers and administrators to understand the strengths and challenges of a state healthcare delivery system.

Cape Town, South Africa

(4+ weeks) 

The colonial and apartheid history of South Africa reverberates to this day, with the disparity of wealth and unequal distribution of resources providing a distinct backdrop to analyze how the country’s past affects South Africans’ present access to healthcare, education and, in some cases, basic services. Homestays in one of Cape Town’s most vibrant neighborhoods near the city’s center offers a base from which to learn from grassroots organizers, community leaders, traditional medical practitioners, and national experts. In the close-knit township of Zwelethemba, a historically Black African township nestled beneath the stunning Hex River Mountains, community elders and young leaders will teach us about the decades-long challenges—but also strategies and victories—for securing political, social, and economic access to health justice.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

(4+ weeks)

With a population of 14 million, Buenos Aires is the most important and influential city, politically and economically, in Argentina, and a cultural hotspot of Latin America. Study the complexities of living in this cosmopolitan, globalized city, where health is a political right and a free public health system accessible to every person in the country coexists with two others: a private sector and semi-private labor union sector, both powerful and competitive. Time spent in the provincial countryside, and your urban homestay experience will help you witness the effects of rapid growth shaped by immigration, economic instability, the globalization of Argentine culture, as well as extreme inequalities in vast sectors of the population.

Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.

Academics

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to: 

  • Apply key concepts, tools, and perspectives used in public health, medical anthropology, and globalization. 
  • Explain the influence of cultural beliefs and context on individual and collective experiences of health and community. 
  • Compare historical drivers of manifestations and epistemologies of ‘health’ across four countries.  
  • Evaluate public health programs and civil society interventions that aim to improve population and individual health.  
  • Analyze the power dynamics in qualitative research, including the histories of exploitation in health research and the ethics and responsibilities in field interactions. 
  • Apply field-based research methods to create culturally appropriate and ethical community interactions and demonstrate these skills in oral presentations and written coursework.  
  • Reflect on what solidarity might entail from multiple perspectives, including for privileged groups and individuals seeking to promote health equity in vulnerable, marginalized, and under-represented communities. 

Read more about Program Learning Outcomes.



Coursework

Access virtual library guide.

The following syllabi are representative of this program. Because courses develop and change over time to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, actual course content will vary from term to term.

The syllabi can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer. Read more about credit transfer.

Please expand the sections below to see detailed course information, including course codes, credits, overviews, and syllabi.


This is SIT

  • We value active togetherness, reciprocity, and respect as the essential ingredients for building a sustainable community.
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  • With open minds, empathy, and courage, we facilitate intercultural understanding and respect for the commonalities and differences between people.
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  • We champion social inclusion & justice in all that we are and all that we do, from ensuring our community and our programs amplify the voices, agency, and dignity of all people to deliberately instilling the principles and practices of inclusion in all of our work.
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  • We are committed to human and environmental well-being through sustainability and contributing to a better world for all living and future generations.

Health, Culture, and Community

Health, Culture, and Community – syllabus
(ANTH3050 / 4 credits)

Medical anthropology serves as the theoretical foundation for this course. It seeks to strengthen students’ ability to understand, interpret, and compare how personal and community identity, health and well-being, illness, and healing are understood within diverse cultural contexts. The course examines the philosophy and practices characteristic of biomedicine and a wide range of traditional and other systems of health and healing, as well as the reality of medical pluralism in the lives of individuals. In so doing, the course covers themes of health and healing pertinent across the life span — from birth to death. Throughout, students are encouraged to support their comparative understanding with an exploration of their own assumptions and practices related to identity, health, and healing.

Globalization and Health

Globalization and Health – syllabus
(IPBH3500 / 4 credits)

Nations at all levels of development vary in their commitment and capacity to define healthcare as a human right and provide healthcare to their citizens equitably. Some have created systems to provide basic healthcare, yet struggle with other factors that influence health, while others position healthcare as an economic commodity subject to market forces. This course provides a framework for comparing the organization and financing of health systems and health policymaking across the countries visited. It examines the political economy of health, with special attention to the impact of international governance, economic structures, and trade policies. Students gain skills in critical thinking, policy analysis, and debate, supported by research, observation, and exposure to different perspectives from different in-country experts.

Public Health: From Biology to Policy

Public Health: From Biology to Policy – syllabus
(IPBH3505 / 4 credits)

This course begins with an overview of global and national health trends in the context of demographic shifts and development. In each country visited, a significant health condition is addressed: What are the biological mechanisms of disease? How is disease distributed in the country’s populations? What public health interventions are supported by empirical evidence? In light of social, cultural, economic, and political conditions, how can such evidence be applied in the local context? Specific considerations studied range from infectious to “lifestyle” and chronic illnesses, e.g., diarrheal diseases of early childhood, adult mental health, COVID-19, cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis.

Community Health Research Methods

Community Health Research Methods – syllabus
(IPBH3510 / 4 credits)

This course seeks to strengthen students’ competence in inquiry-guided learning through field-based case studies. The course begins with an introduction to the philosophic traditions of ethnography, epidemiology, and health services research — complementary and sometimes conflicting. It then teaches and gives students the opportunity to apply the chief tools of each tradition (e.g., participant observation, in-depth interviewing, mapping, interpreting data analyses, and oral presentation of findings). In each country, students choose from a range of available field case study topics/sites as the primary venue for demonstrating their field research and presentation skills.

Homestays / Housing

Accommodations

Student accommodations will include a mix of homestays, hostels, guesthouses, and small hotels/dorms. Students will experience homestays where possible and will be oriented as they move from place to place.

More About Homestay Experiences:

Family structures will vary. For example, a host family may include a single mother of two small children, or a large extended family with many people coming and going. Please bear in mind that the idea of what constitutes a “home” (i.e., the physical nature of the house) may be different from what you would expect. You will need to be prepared to adapt to a new life with a new diet, a new schedule, new people, and possibly new priorities and expectations. Learning about these differences is a key part of understanding the relationship between health and community in different cultural contexts.

In most cases, students will be placed in homestays in pairs, with placements made to best accommodate health concerns, including allergies or dietary needs. Information about homestay families will only be available upon arriving in each country.

Career Paths

Positions recently held by alumni of this program include:

  • Co-founder and executive director of Spark MicroGrants, New York, NY, and multiple locations in Africa

  • Policy advisor in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC

  • Managing director of Food Loft, Boston, MA

  • Intern at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Health Diplomacy, Washington, DC

  • Primary care intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

  • Founder of TurnOut, an LGBTQ volunteer-matching social enterprise, San Francisco, CA

Faculty & Staff

IHP Health and Community: Globalization, Culture, and Care

The faculty/staff team shown on this page is a sample of the individuals who may lead your specific program. Faculty and coordinators are subject to change to accommodate each program’s unique schedule and locations.

Zed McGladdery, BProc bio link
Zed McGladdery, BProc
Program Director
Dionisios Kavadias, PhD bio link
Dionisios Kavadias, PhD
Visiting Faculty
Carolina Rovetta, MFA bio link
Carolina Rovetta, MFA
Country Coordinator, Argentina
Nokubonga Ralayo bio link
Nokubonga Ralayo
Country Coordinator, South Africa
Archna Merh, MA bio link
Archna Merh, MA
Country Coordinator, India

Discover the Possibilities

  • Cost & Scholarships

    SIT Study Abroad is committed to making international education accessible to all students. Scholarship awards generally range from $500 to $5,000 for semester programs and $500 to $3,000 for summer programs. This year, SIT will award nearly 1 million in scholarships and grants to SIT Study Abroad students.

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  • A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IHP

    Explore a Day in the Life of an IHP student!

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