Important Information at a Glance
Dates: July 29, 2024 – August 17, 2024
Application Deadline: February 25, 2024
Open to: 20 students based in Palestine and 10 US-based students.
Cost of Participation: $2,750 (See below for scholarship opportunities)
Location: Amman, Jordan
Harvard FXB Scholarships: Available only to Harvard University applicants. Several need-based partial scholarships, each covering approximately half of the course’s fee, are available through the Albina Fund for Student Travel Fellowships offered by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.
Course Overview
The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights—a partnership between the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University—is hosting its second annual Palestine Social Medicine Course. This three-week intensive summer course is designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease.
Philosophy
The Palestine Social Medicine course brings together a multidisciplinary cadre of Palestinian and Harvard students for an experiential learning experience in Palestine. The course offers both conceptual and practical engagement with the structural determinants of health affecting Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel, and the Diaspora. The Palestine Social Medicine Course occurs annually at Birzeit University in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territories. It includes travel throughout the West Bank and Israel for site visits focused on evaluating the range of health care available, as well as the variable social conditions which contribute to and determine health outcomes.
To supplement existing coursework, the social medicine framework offers a progressive approach to social and structural determinants of health education. The Palestine course builds on the expertise, experience, and curricula of EqualHealth’s successful annual social medicine courses in Uganda, Haiti, and the United States, which over the last few years have trained hundreds of health professional students from these countries and beyond to both understand and respond to the social determinants of health.
Course Objectives
The specific objectives of the course include:
- Educate Palestinian and Harvard health professional students on the social determinants of health in Palestine and other settings.
- Integrate lectures and field visits into a comprehensive and dynamic learning experience.
- Develop student appreciation for the need to be historically deep and geographically broad in their approach to understanding the complexities of health inequity.
- Build a growing network of structurally competent health professionals to address and champion Palestinian health.
Dates
July 29, 2024 – August 17, 2024
Location
Amman, Jordan
Cost and Expenses
Total course cost: $2,750. Cost includes:
- In-country transport and accommodation (flights excluded)
- Coffee, lunch, and some dinners
- Field visits
- Course fees
- All program activities, included scheduled cultural activities
There are a number of expenses that are not covered by the program fee that students are responsible to cover on their own. These expenses include:
- International airfare
- Ground transportation for personal purposes
- Personal expenditures, communication, course materials, and incidentals
Students who need a visa to travel to Jordan are responsible for securing their visas themselves. An invitation letter to support the visa application can be provided.
Successful applicants are required to pay a $500 nonrefundable deposit by March 20, 2024 to secure their place in the program. The remaining amount is to be paid by April 20, 2024.
Course Structure
Course pedagogy will include field visits, group discussion, presentations, and personal reflection to foster a transformative learning environment. Guest speakers will include a wide range of health and social actors including health practitioners, community organizers, activists, academics, and representatives from civil society organizations.
Curriculum Content
Curriculum topics will build learner’s core understandings of social medicine, social determinants of health, health activism, and the historical, social, and political context of Palestine. Core topics include:
- Self-awareness and structural humility
- What is social medicine and what is structural competency?
- Social medicine/structural competency approaches to clinical encounters
- A social sciences approach to disease in Palestine
- The human rights framework and the right to health in Palestine
- Health and health culture in Palestine
- Settler colonialism and its manifestations in Palestine
- Health and racism
- Case studies in Palestinian health
- Health systems financing
- Barriers to care in the oPt/Israel/diaspora and means of alleviating access
Core Faculty
- Yara Asi, PhD. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University and Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida
- Weeam Hammoudeh, PhD. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University
- David Mills, MD. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University and Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School
- Osama Tannous, MD. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
- Bram Wispelwey, MS MD MPH. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Eligibility
The course is open to 30 participants of which 10 will be US-based students, preference will be given to Harvard students. Priority will be given to students in the Medical, Public Health, Nursing, and Social Sciences. The course will be taught in English.
Harvard Applicants
Students enrolled in any Harvard graduate school (including Medicine, Dentistry, Chan School) or doctoral program, and senior undergraduates are eligible to apply. Harvard students who will graduate in May 2024 are also eligible to apply.
Harvard Course Credit
Harvard graduate students can choose this course for Independent Study Credit to be credited during the Fall 2024 semester.
Students who decide to receive academic credits will work with Professor Bram Wispelwey during the fall semester and produce a paper as part of the Independent Study requirements.
Non-Harvard Applicants
Non-Harvard students will apply through Birzeit University. Applications will be posted in early spring.
Accommodations
Participants will share double occupancy rooms. Breakfast will be offered at all hotel locations. Lunch will also be provided and be covered by the program for the majority of days. Though some dinners will be covered by the program, students will be required to make their own dinner arrangements for the majority of their stay.
Program Cancellations
In the event of cancellation of the whole course, all amounts paid towards the course cost will be refunded to students, including the deposit. The program is not responsible for refunding airfare, visa application fees, or any other incurred expenses not covered by course fee. While planning for your trip, consider purchasing travel insurance or refundable airline tickets.
If students decide to cancel their participation for personal reasons, the deposit is nonrefundable. The remaining amount is not refundable if participants decide to cancel their participation for personal reasons, after June 1, 2024. Individual cases will be considered, and refunds of the remaining amounts will depend on the discretion of the organizers.
Ensure Safety while Traveling Abroad (Harvard applicants only)
Global Support Services
For Safety Information and Recommendations while traveling abroad, please visit Harvard’s Global Support Services (GSS) for important tools, as well as a list of steps for planning your departure and for staying safe while abroad.
International SOS
Ensure that you register your trip with the Harvard International SOS. International SOS provides 24/7 medical, mental health, and security support and evacuation services to eligible Harvard students abroad as well as access to helpful resources and alerts.
2024 Application Timeline:
- December 20, 2023: Application process opens
- February 25, 2024: Application process closes
- March 20, 2024: Payment of nonrefundable $500 deposit to secure place in the program
- April 20, 2024: Payment of full amount
Need Additional Information?
For questions regarding the social medicine course, please reach out to Nadine Bahour at nbahour@hsph.harvard.edu.
Watch the recording of our 2023 webinar, Reassembling the Pieces: Experiences from the Palestine Social Medicine Course, to hear directly from students who participated in the inaugural Palestine Social Medicine course at the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University about their experience and takeaways: