Maybe stories are just data with a soul
by Roshni Bhatnagar on November 21, 2011
The National Office globalhealthU Team will be writing a blog post during each Track of our curriculum. In our last post, we shared with you the first half of the Introduction Track, in which chapter members learned about the history of GlobeMed and gained a better understanding of the history of global health. This first ever network-wide discussion asked: What does ‘the movement for global health equity’ mean to you? We got inspiring responses from a range of individuals – here are some of our favorites.
“The movement can only reach fruition when we collectively realize that global health equity is what should be, not what can be.” -Parth Shah, Co-President of GlobeMed at University of Virginia
“The movement should tackle root causes of health inequalities, aligning of priorities and stakeholders, monitoring health progress through the various health indicators, facilitate the quality of health systems, to address the underlying social and economic determinants of health through policies and integrate pro-poor, gender responsive and human rights –based approaches.” -Pamela Angwech, Gulu Women’s Economic Development and Globalization (GWED-G, partnered with GlobeMed at Columbia)
“At times it's just jargon, meaningless to 95% of people - possibly the same way the term "civil rights" was viewed not too long ago. At other times, it's the reason I get out of bed every morning.” -Brian Beachler, GlobeMed at Penn State alum
Thank you to everyone who shared your thoughts with us! Check out the rest of the network’s responses here.
After the Introduction Track, chapters begin the main content for the year. This year’s globalhealthU curriculum is centered on the year-long theme of the interrelation of poverty and health. Each core track is framed by a set of guiding questions, the first of which asks: What is poverty? What is the relationship between poverty and health?
Over the course of four weeks, chapter members work to develop a nuanced understanding of today’s manifestations of poverty and how this is intimately tied to GlobeMed’s work. First, we engage in a qualitative exploration, examining and discussing how major organizations quantify poverty. Next, we expand our understanding by reading narratives and stories to better understand the human, qualitative dimensions of poverty. From this point we begin to illuminate the cycle of poor health and poverty by examining relevant case studies. Ultimately, we synthesize these numbers, personal stories, and case studies to form a holistic understanding of poverty’s relationship to health.
This track’s intersection of numbers and narratives reminds us of a sentiment from Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. In her TED Talk, Ms. Brown asserts:
“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.”
This proposition prompts many questions in the context of this track. What role do stories play in our understanding of a situation? Can numbers tell a story? What stories have we heard that are particularly soulful?
For our second network-wide discussion, we would love to hear your reflections on this statement. Maybe stories are just data with a soul. What do you think?
-National Office globalhealthU Team
(Rachel, Neal, Anne, Michael, and Sarah)
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