Department Hosts Urban Health Symposium

Drs. Alayne Adams, Sabina Faiz Rashid, and Bernhard Liese following Dr. Rashid's presentation.

The Department of International Health recently organized several events focused on Urban Health. In a two-day symposium featuring speakers from three continents, participants explored issues of pandemic infectious disease outbreak and non-communicable diseases in vulnerable urban geographies. Georgetown faculty and international experts from Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, and Ghana identified areas of shared concern and potential collaboration.

Following the symposium, Sabina Faiz Rashid, Ph.D., delivered a lecture on adolescents’ lives, perceptions of love, and reproductive well-being in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. In her research through the James P. Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Rashid has found that occupational and personal choices challenge socio-cultural and religious expectations. Using case-studies from her medical anthropological background, Rashid showed the various challenges facing women and girls in Dhaka’s slums.

The events were sponsored by Georgetown’s newly founded Urban Health Collaborative (UHC), which is operated through the Department of International Health. The UHC aims to champion urban health research and development in cities around the world and the Washington, DC area.

Symposium attendees included Georgetown University faculty members, students, and urban researchers in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, and Ghana.