i was forwarded this course description. it may be interesting to
those interested in health, human rights and social justice.
------------------------------ Original Message ------------------------------
Subject: [Human Rights] Course in Health, Development and Social Transformation
From: "Joel Ngugi" <jngugi at u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, May 12, 2008 18:22
To: lawb596a_sp08 at u.washington.edu
lawa571a_sp08 at u.washington.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear All:
I am writing to let you know that next winter, I will be teaching (or, more
appropriately, leading) a course on "Health, Development and Social
Transformation" in the Winter. The course will be hosted by Jackson School
and cross-registered here at the law school, and also at Evans School,
School of Social Work, and Program on Environmental Studies. We hope to
draw about 30 graduate and undergraduate students from all these schools in
the course. I have included the course description and the list of topics
that will be covered below. As you will see, the course will be an
inter-disciplinary approach to dealing with the health crisis in the Greater
Horn of Africa using a human rights and social justice framework. I hope to
see some of you in the class. Please note the topics and guest lecturers
are only tentative:
Course Description: Health, Development and Social Transformation
This course is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the
complexities inherent in efforts to simultaneously improve health and human
rights in the context of the unique economic, social, political and cultural
transformations (and upheavals) occurring in the Greater Horn of Africa. It
will examine the multiplicity of social, economic, cultural, legal, and
political factors which affect the health and well-being of individuals and
societies, and interrogate working models of approaches to favorably alter
them.
The course will examine ways in which public health professionals, lawyers,
development agencies, anthropologists, social workers, and others have
theorized about social and economic change, and the history and ethical
implications of their practical engagement with development intervention.
Through interdisciplinary studies, the course will seek to demonstrate the
links between economic, sociological, social, and political processes,
changing identities and development intervention. It will examine concrete
social problems in developing countries such as public health management,
access to health care, women's property rights, trade and economic
development policies, the effects of armed conflicts and environmental
degradation, the role of human rights, and the role of the state and
regulation.
The course will begin by giving the students sufficient background to
understand the context in which the praxis of health amelioration, health
care provision, and the improvement of underlying determinants of health
(such as sanitation, clean drinking water, and health education) occurs in
the setting of the Greater Horn of Africa; and critically assess the modes
of production of knowledge about these challenges, and how we think and talk
about them. One of the underlying themes of the course is to explore the
idea that particular forms of knowledge generated and transmitted by civil
society and their contestation are a key determinant in the
operationalization of the human rights and social justice projects.
Topics
1. Framing the Course: Defining "Health"; "Development"; "Human Rights";
"Social Transformation"; and "Social Justice"
2. The Pornography of Poverty: Representations about Africa and Poverty in
Development and Human Rights Discourses
3. The Health Crisis in Africa and the Role of Health in Social
Transformation Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
4. The Backdrop of Economic Development: Understanding the Challenges of
Achieving Health in the Context of "Underdevelopment"
5. Analysis of current health crisis in the Greater Horn of Africa:
a. HIV/AIDS
b. Reproductive rights
c. Malaria
d. Child mortality
e. Lack of access to basic health care
f. Malnutrition and starvation
6. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Human Rights Perspectives (Guest
lecturer from Law School)
7. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Public Health Perspectives (Guest
lecturer from Global Health)
8. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Perspectives from Development
Studies (Guest lecturer from Evans School)
9. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Anthropological Perspectives
(Guest lecturer from Anthropology)
10. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Economic Perspectives (Guest
lecturer from Jackson School)
11. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Feminist Perspectives (Prof.
Sylvia Kangara - Law)
12. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Perspectives from Social Work
(Peris Kibera, PhD candidate - Social Work)
13. Solving Health and Development Crisis: The Role of Technology and
Standard Setting (Prof. Jane Winn - Law)
14. Solving Health and Development Crisis: Cultural/Grass Root Perspectives
(Ms. Loyce Ong'udi of Rabuor Village Project)
15. Case Study: Analysis of a Current Controversy: Female "Circumcision"
16. Case Study: Analysis of a Current Challenge: HIV/Aids Pandemic
17. Obstacles: Focus on Armed Conflict (Guest speaker from Mercy Corps)
18. Obstacles: Focus on Environmental Degradation
19. So You Want to do Health, Development or Human Rights Work Abroad?
(Odhalia Mbuni of Seattle City Social Work Dept & Peter Kithene, MPH
student, UW)
20. Wrap-up session: So What did we Learn?
Joel M. Ngugi
Assistant Professor of Law
University of Washington School of Law
William H. Gates Hall, Rm 315
Box 353020
Seattle, WA 98195-3020
Tel: (206) 543-7611
Fax: (206) 543-5671
http://www.law.washington.edu/Directory/Profile.aspx?ID=149
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