Program Description

The UW-Madison Summer Field School for the Study of Language, Culture and Community Health in Ecuador provides field and classroom study of languages, culture and community-based health care in the Andean and Amazonian regions of Ecuador for an interdisciplinary group of UW-Madison health science students. The course offers a six-week immersion opportunity to study Spanish and cross-cultural issues relating to health care in a developing country. Students will learn valuable language skills and will examine the complex cultural, ecological, socioeconomic, political and biomedical factors influencing human and animal health in the Andean and Amazonian regions of Ecuador. Students will be exposed to the interface between Western medicine and indigenous health care practices in Ecuador and will learn about global public health issues through classroom and experiential field activities.

Academics

Students participate in two concurrent academic activities throughout the program. Students will study Spanish at a language institute in Otavalo while simultaneously engaging in lecture, discussion and field activities focused on health-related course content. Participants will be awarded six UW-Madison credits upon successful completion of the program – three credits for PHS 641 and three additional credits.

In this interdisciplinary setting, students will think critically about connections between cultural variables and human and animal health and disease, will gain firsthand experience with cultural and medical issues in a developing country, and will develop an understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of medical anthropology. The course is designed so students will develop cross-cultural skills that will ideally grow into personal and professional assets for future health care practice.

On most days, students will study Spanish in the morning and will have two to three hours of additional class in the afternoon. Afternoon sessions will consist of faculty- and student-led discussions on a variety of topic areas. Throughout the course, the class will consider how biological/scientific approaches to health can intersect or conflict with more culturally based approaches and will engage in such questions as How can a cultural understanding of the body and its various conditions improve the understanding and delivery of health care?

A faculty member from Spaulding University will serve as Resident Director in Ecuador. Students will also hear lectures from UW-Madison faculty and from local specialists.

Housing

Housing is included for the duration of the program. Students live with host families in Otavalo. During orientation in Quito and while visiting Pedro Vicente Maldonado, students will stay in a local hotel. There will also be an overnight excursion at a forest camp in the Amazonian region of Ecuador. Most meals are provided. Dietary preferences of students usually can be accommodated.

Excursions and Activities

The majority of instruction will occur in Otavalo, a community in the Andean highlands. Students will visit clinics and health centers and will participate in community assessments and other community activities. Field trips will include cultural events and visits to scenic natural areas. Past site visits have included an animal market, local healers, clinics, the indigenous communities of Yambiro and San Clemente, and river rafting.