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About Research

Faculty in sociology, economics, anthropology and geology, many of whom hold joint appointments at the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC), are pursuing health and environmental research throughout the continent. Forty percent of PSTC faculty associates are engaged in population, health, and development research in sub-Saharan Africa. The PSTC collaborates with 12 African research institutions and universities in six African countries, and approximately one-third of PSTC graduate students are engaged in research based in sub-Saharan countries.

Since 1988, Brown’s International Health Institute has helped develop, promote and coordinate interdisciplinary activities of faculty and students in Africa. Indeed, global health is one of the fastest-growing areas of the curriculum across the biomedical and social sciences, and many faculty and students are committed to lessening African health disparities.

For more than 15 months a dedicated group of faculty and students from across a wide range of divisions and departments have worked to develop a plan for an enhanced, cohesive and effective Global Health initiative at Brown. Led by Professors Dan Smith Steve McGarvey and Susan Cu-Uvin, the proposed initiative builds on three integrated pillars:

Long-term partnerships with institutions and collaborators in strategically selected sites within developing countries

Innovative integration of research, education and service to provide students and faculty with unique opportunities for discovery and learning possible in settings where Global Health problems can be studied and addressed in their full medical and social complexity

Synergistic interdisciplinary collaborations across multiple divisions and departments at Brown to enable Global Health research, training and interventions to extend from the laboratory to community and society with an emphasis on equity, justice and sustainability

In October 2006, Brown co-sponsered a major conference at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, on African and African Diasporic Knowledge. From this conference various collaborative projects in subjects ranging from African Literature to violence in post-colonial societies have emerged.

In Summer 2008, engineering researchers visited Kenya to evaluate potential collaboration on technology needs for amaranth and eucalyptus cultivation. Brown engineers worked with the Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and Maseno University.