Welcome! We are passionate SPH students organizing a teach-in to address what we feel are gaps in the curriculum, all of which fall under the theme of Decolonizing Public Health. The teach in will be an all day event held at the University of Michigan School of Public Health on March 30th, 2018. This is a student-initiated, organized, and facilitated event focused on providing students with a holistic and foundational understanding of the history of public health while transforming the School of Public Health curriculum to meet the needs and concerns of students. Topics include American Indian Health, Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality, Disaggregation of Data & Racial Disparities for Asian Americans, Arab & Muslim Identities, Mass Incarceration, and more! Breakfast and lunch will be served.
The organizers have conceptualized the Decolonization of Public Health to emphasize efforts to critically reflect upon the history of public health: (1) interrogating systems and structures within public health to examine where and how health inequities are perpetuated; and (2) centering the voices and experiences of those who have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised. We draw our conceptualizations from the work of Junot Díaz, who describes the process of decolonization as:
The organizers have conceptualized the Decolonization of Public Health to emphasize efforts to critically reflect upon the history of public health: (1) interrogating systems and structures within public health to examine where and how health inequities are perpetuated; and (2) centering the voices and experiences of those who have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised. We draw our conceptualizations from the work of Junot Díaz, who describes the process of decolonization as:
This teach in also draws inspiration from an undergraduate public health course at UC Berkeley, which describes decolonizing public health as: "looking at [Public Health] as both creating and being created by structures of power." They emphasize the importance of carefully examining health disparities to demonstrate how public health and western/ colonial ideologies intersect and enact violence. We share their goals of "making the field better-serving for all bodies".
We anticipate this teach-in will bring these important topics to the forefront by informing the SPH community as a whole.
We also hope that it will be the beginning of a conversation which can start to change the way in which we think about existing public health structures. This website allows you to view our full schedule, meet the facilitators and organizers, and to RSVP.
We anticipate this teach-in will bring these important topics to the forefront by informing the SPH community as a whole.
We also hope that it will be the beginning of a conversation which can start to change the way in which we think about existing public health structures. This website allows you to view our full schedule, meet the facilitators and organizers, and to RSVP.