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Interdepartmental Doctoral Fellowship Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Health Studies Planned for Fall 2007
Beginning in September 2007, the Mailman School of Public Health is partnering with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University to launch the nation's first multidisciplinary doctoral training program in gender, sexuality, and health. The unique undertaking will prepare students for research and teaching careers focused on the reproductive and sexual health of citizens in the U.S. and abroad.
Directed by faculty in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School, the program combines rigorous training in a social science discipline with specialized courses and research apprenticeships in gender, sexuality, and health. In addition to course work at the Mailman School, students will complete two semesters of courses in one of six social science areas in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, including anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, and sociology.
"The need for social science research and training in this area is critical," says Constance Nathanson, PhD, professor of clinical Sociomedical Sciences and director of the program. "The high rates of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies in the U.S., coupled with the ethnic, gender, and age disparities associated with these conditions, are cited in several recent authoritative reports calling for more basic and applied research to address these growing public health challenges."
Dr. Nathanson adds that the development of social science research focused on gender and sexuality has, for the most part, failed to accompany the fast-paced transformations in these issues. According to Dr. Nathanson, there has been neglect of the global as well as local economic, social, and political contexts in which gender and sexuality are enacted, leading to misidentification or even ignorance of important sources of vulnerability to health risks. This, she states, is due in part to a lack of appropriately trained scholars entering the field.
Peter Messeri, PhD, associate professor of clinical Sociomedical Sciences and co-director of the program stated, "The HIV/AIDS epidemic—perhaps more than any other single event—has revealed the complex intertwining of society, culture, sexuality, and health. It has focused a spotlight on gender, race, and ethnicity in relation to access to healthcare, the power to negotiate relationships, and the social and familial outcomes of infection."
Beginning in 2007, the Mailman School will offer up to two funded fellowships each year. Funding support is guaranteed for five years, allowing PhD candidates to pursue in-depth research. Applications are due January 3, 2007 for September 2007 admission.
"This new partnership is very exciting," said Peter Bearman, PhD, professor of Sociology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University. "It represents a great opportunity to deepen the links between the important work undertaken in the school of public health and the social science community."
The program is funded by a $5 million grant from the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Development. For more information about the program, please click here.
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