Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights

Coursework

Prerequisites:
Previous college-level coursework in public health, development studies, or other related fields. Intermediate Portuguese or four semesters of college-level Spanish or equivalent.

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, Race, and Human Rights Seminar - syllabus
(IPBH 3000 / 4 credits / 60 class hours)
An interdisciplinary course conducted in English and Portuguese, with required readings, examining public health care planning and practice in Brazil in the context of racism, poverty, and social exclusion. Resources utilized in the delivery of course content may include physicians and nurses, government health officials, multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, and Candomblé healers.

Intensive Language Study: Beginning Portuguese I - syllabus
(PORT 1004 / 4 credits / 60 class hours)
Intensive Language Study: Beginning Portuguese II - syllabus
(PORT 1504 / 4 credits / 60 class hours)
Intensive Language Study: Intermediate Portuguese I - syllabus
(PORT 2004 / 4 credits / 60 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 Field Study Seminar - syllabus
(ANTH 3500 / 4 credits / 60 class hours)
An introductory course in research methods in both the social and natural sciences, 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
(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.

Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research