Epidemics in the Era of Globalization
May 3-5, 2007
Participants' Interests and Suggested Topics

Terry Boychuk, Sociology, Macalester College, boychuk@macalester.edu

Interests: I am new to the topic of global epidemics. I am preparing a new course for the 07-08 academic year, entitled Global Challenges of the 21st Century. In addition to developing course modules on environmentalism, global climate change, non-renewable and renewable energies, food supply, and poverty, I would like to add a section on global public health issues.

Suggested Topics: Since I am new to this field of research, I am open to discussing a broad range of perspectives and issues. I would be certainly happy to learn more about trans-national migrations of infectious and contagious diseases, but would also like to discuss other concerns.

Paulette A. Chaponniere, Nursing, Hope College, chaponniere@hope.edu

Interests: I have had extensive experience in Third World countries in the health sector. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in International Health with an emphasis on research and education, and several of my core courses focused on epidemiology. I teach a community health course which includes several content areas related to epidemiology, and a practicum component at the local health department.

Suggested Topics: Teaching strategies for undergraduates. Since this is a field which greatly interests me, any session focusing on current strategies and issues in global health would also be beneficial.

Devavani Chatterjea, Biology, Macalester College, chatterjead@macalester.edu

Interests: My research and teaching are involve mechanisms of immunity and dynamics of emerging infectious diseases. As a new faculty member at Macalester College, I am developing interdisciplinary immunology-based courses involving both biological and social sciences. I am also a part of an initiative to design a curricular concentration in community and global health and am developing a course on the global manifestations of HIV/AIDS with a faculty member from WomenÕs, Gender and Sexuality studies.

Suggested Topics: The changing nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Comparison between emerging avian flu and established/historical epidemics such as malaria and smallpox. Encounters between the body and the body politic. The changing meaning of Òepidemic disease.Ó Epidemics, poverty and access to health education/care.

Linda Gao, Mathematics, North Central College, lqgao@noctrl.edu

Interests: My interest is in epidemiological modeling, which is to use mathematical models to study the spread of infectious diseases, and effects of control measures. I would like to know the impact of globalization on the major factors in the spread of infectious diseases, and possible intervention strategies.

Suggested Topics: How much more the world is ÒconnectedÓ than 20, 30 years ago? How is the trend changing? What are the measures of ÒconnectednessÓ? How each way of the connection affects the spread of infectious diseases? What are the political, economical, social and psychological factors in the starting, containing and control of epidemics? What would be difference in reaction/action to more lethal or less lethal diseases?

Ragene Dalton Gwin, Kinesiology, St. Ambrose University, gwinragened@sau.edu

Interests: My professional assignment includes pre-service health education preparation. Additionally, I will co-facilitate a freshman Learning Community wherein KidderÕs Mountains Beyond Mountains will augment course materials. Conversation and consideration of trends, philosophy, outcomes, ethics, and best practice for disease prevention and control should positively affect pedagogy and content.

Suggested Topics: Strategies for coordination, collaboration of services. Updates on stats, disease transmission, treatment, control efforts. US involvement and effect of corporate invasion of 3^rd world countries; effect on culture. Generational poverty and effect on disease transmission and treatment.

Helen Hazen, Geography, Macalester College, hazen@macalester.edu

Interests: One of my major academic interests is the geography of health and healthcare, and particularly the role of environment in influencing health. I have taught a class in medical geography for several years now, and would like to broaden my understanding of the socio-political aspects of health issues.

Suggested Topics: Role of globalization in current and potential health crises, e.g., avian flu, HIV/AIDS. Human rights in public health. Implications of labeling Ð e.g., labeling a disease as being Ôepidemic,Õ etc.

Mary Teresa Johnson, Nursing, Elmhurst College, terryj@elmhurst.edu

Interests: My background and interest lie in public and community health nursing, which I both teach and practice.

Suggested Topics: Environmental, political and cultural aspects of global epidemiology.

Meg Wilkes Karraker, Sociology & Criminal Justice, University of St. Thomas, mwkarraker@stthomas.edu

Interests: I teach undergraduate sociology on adolescence, family, and theory and interdisciplinary courses on family, media, poverty, and sexuality, as well as a course on gender in global perspective. My most recent scholarly project is a book on Global Families, in which I examined the effects of globalization on families.

Suggested Topics: Consequences for families and for societies, as families are challenged (e.g., AIDS orphans). Gender effects (e.g,. global care chains). Global demographic transitions, especially north/south disparities. Supranational social policies. Also, sources which include the voices of those directly affected by epidemics.

Michael Lindberg, Geography & Geosciences, Elmhurst College, michaell@elmhurst.edu

Interests: I deal with topics of disease, biodiversity, health status, medical geography and the social, political and economic impact of disease in the developing world in several of my courses. These include Regional Study of the Developing World, Economic Geography and Geography of International Relations.

Suggested Topics: The interaction among environmental, biological, political, social and economic factors which contribute to the development and spread of disease both locally and globally. AND

The systemic structural aspects of the global economic, political and health care systems which contribute to the development and spread of disease.

Phoebe Lostroh, Biology, Colorado College, plostroh@coloradocollege.edu

Interests: I am a molecular microbiologist, and I study genes important for Salmonella virulence. I plan to teach a course on infectious disease and inequality or on infectious disease and gender.

Suggested Topics: none listed

Eric Lund, International Studies Office/Religion, St. Olaf College, lund@stolaf.edu

Interests: As Director of International Studies I facilitate the sending of almost 800 St. Olaf students each year to places all over the globe. I am interested in Epidemics both because I need to monitor the safety of off-campus programs in areas where epidemics might take place and because the study of Epidemics in an Era of Globalization has been a course topic on some of the faculty-led programs we sponsor Ð particularly in Asia. I also have some teaching involvement in African Studies and have a special interest in problems in that part of the world.

Suggested Topics: Special interest in the HIV/AIDS issue because I take students to study every other year in Africa Ð I have an academic interest especially in South Africa. Other issues related to Africa. Influenza, SARS etc. Ð Asia issues. I am not a scientist and would appreciate learning more about this aspect of the problem Ð as long as this can be made comprehensible to a person in the humanities.

Tamara Marsh, Biology, Elmhurst College,

Interests: As a microbiologist I am interested in learning more about the impact of globalization on the spread of disease and I intend incorporate some of this material into my January term course, the Plagues of Nations: An Historical Perspective on Disease.

Suggested Topics: Details on various diseases, the causative agents, and the spread of these diseases through modern societies, and older societies.

Scott Morgensen, WomenÕs, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Macalester College, morgensen@macalester.edu

Interests: I study how HIV social movements use transnational organizing and activist media to explain and transform the global structuring of HIV infection and treatment. I address in particular how activists theorize colonization and economic globalization as contexts producing pandemic. Currently my research on indigenous HIV/AIDS organizing in the US and Canada is extending into comparative study of linked movements worldwide.

Suggested Topics: Global public health institutions and policies, HIV social movements (and other health movements), transnational organizing, treatment access, and activist media; highlighting work by indigenous people, sexual minorities, and sex workers. I am particularly interested in discussing the historical contexts shaping global public health today, such as in comparative histories of colonization, decolonization, and globalization.

Mary Osterle, Nursing, Elmhurst College, oesterle@elmhurst.edu

Interests: Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework for Health Professions is one of the foundational documents for our graduate nursing program. The content of this seminar will enhance my understanding of several key elements of the curriculum as well as supporting my teaching in these areas.

Suggested Topics: The ethical dilemmas the U.S. faces in developing policy regarding globalization. The role of health professionals in relationship to the effects of globalization

Meredith Raimondo, Comparative Am. Studies, Oberlin College, Meredith.raimondo@oberlin.edu

Interests: I am currently working on a book on the mass media trope of the Òspread of AIDS.Ó I am interested in the role of space in narratives that construct and contain the threat of epidemic disease. I am also writing about the relationship between AIDS, human rights frames, and the militarization of health.

Suggested Topics: I am especially interested in the politics of biosecurity frames, human rights and health security models, the relationship between globalization and epidemics, and issues of narrative as knowledge about epidemics is produced in diverse sites, from research labs to television studios.

Robin S. Salter, Biology, Oberlin College, robin.salter@oberlin.edu

Interests: I teach Immunology and Virology courses and have taught an Emerging Infectious Diseases seminar. I am fascinated by the interplay of social and biological factors as contributors to EIDs as diverse as TB and food-borne illnesses. I hope to include aspects of EIDs in an interdisciplinary, general audience Human Biology that I will coordinate. I expect that this MFS will provide a important perspective as I develop this course.

Suggested Topics: Public health versus individual rights (particularly quarantine, forced treatment for diseases such as TB, required vaccination). Impact of global warming on spread of infectious diseases. Does viewing infectious disease as a national security risk have a downside?

Karen Sutton, Psychology, Oberlin College, Karen.Sutton@oberlin.edu

Interests: I have two distinct interests in the topic of ÒEpidemics in an Era of Globalization,Ó one related to my teaching and the other related to my research. As a clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine, I teach a course in Health Psychology. One important topic we cover is the HIV-AIDS epidemic; we focus on the behavioral contributions to the epidemic and the resistance to behavior change that could stem the spread of HIV-AIDS. My specialization in behavioral medicine has led to my research on lifestyle changes to mitigate the health-compromising effects of obesity. While an epidemic resulting from a different class of vectors, obesity has as great a potential for damaging health globally as any pathogen-induced epidemic.

Suggested Topics: Health-compromising behaviors and their resistance to change; public policy solutions including governmental involvement in facilitating solutions; economic pressures (e.g., food and pharmeceutical industries) complicating identification of solutions.

Kimberly Vrudny, Theology, St. Thomas University, kjvrudny@stthomas.edu

Interests: I have been facilitating service-learning workshops to assist faculty in thinking about how to partner with Open Arms of Minnesota (an organization that prepares meals for and delivers meals to people living with HIV/AIDS) in their courses. In addition, I am traveling to South Africa in to teach a J-term 2008 course on "AIDS, Apartheid, and the Arts of Resistance." Twelve students will accompany me to South Africa where, in addition to theological coursework, we will deliver 200 food parcels to families living with HIV/AIDS in a community where there is little access to medicine, and, even more pressing in their minds, where there is little access to employment in order to buy food. Finally, I am writing a book of theological reflections about art about AIDS.

Suggested Topics: none listed

Thomas Williamson, Sociology/Anthropology, St. Olaf College, williata@stolaf.edu

Interests: I am currently working on a project focusing on outbreaks of violence in Malaysia Ð I am interested in how these become attributed to mental illness and how the state medicalizes political protest. I am currently teaching a new course on medical anthropology which highlights the transnational exchange of healthcare.

Suggested Topics: As an anthropologist I am interested in the metaphorical and narrative uses of epidemics and disease as a means of representing social relations. As someone who does research in Southeast Asia I am interested in how bird flu and SARS become politicized. Since this is such an interdisciplinary field, I would find also it valuable to learn more about how people in other disciplines approach issues of health and disease.

Schedule | Pre-readings