Long time, no post

Despite my best attempts, I fell off the blog bus over the last couple of months. Oh well; it’s been a hectic, challenging, and at times emotional transition out of my day-to-day role with Partners In Health and into the world of academic research. But, I’ve also had a great time officially transitioning into my work as a research assistant with the Lancet Commission on NCDIs and Poverty.

The work with the Lancet Commission is progressing well. We are about ready to submit our IRB application (yikes…) for a study that includes a large scale survey of undergraduate and graduate students interested in or currently studying global health along with a semi-structured interviews with key faculty, administrators, student-organization leaders, and activists.

Building off of some of the theoretical work considered earlier, we seek to answer three interrelated questions:

  1. What are the primary factors motivating students to choose to study global health?
  2. What types of formal academic programs, student-driven organizations, and other global health activities are emerging to meet this demand?
  3. What opportunities do these programs, organizations, networks present for future collective action?

More on this research plan soon.

Additionally, the Tufts course, “The Right to Health: Problems, Perspectives, and Progress” is coming to a close next week! It’s hard to believe how quickly a semester goes. But, it was a great time and huge honor to get to participate in developing and leading this course with a group of 13 amazing Tufts undergraduate students and Prof. Fernando Ona. I’m looking forward to writing some synthesis / debrief posts soon.

Now that I’ve gotten settled into the work with the Commission and that the semester is ending, I plan to devote more time to this space.

Lots more to come!