Exploration of health issues in the Spanish-speaking world shaped by social, cultural, political, ethnic, and economic determinants. Topics: cultural competency, community beliefs, medical practices and policies, preventive medicine, mental health. Projects include presentations, writing, research, and conversations with local and global contacts. Evaluation on knowledge of content, oral and written proficiency in Spanish. One 300-level Spanish course recommended prior to enrolling. Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent.
Guest speakers will provide expertise on local health access for the Latinx community.
Julian Xie (T'15, MPP '20, MD '21) talks about how his experiences in Spanish 306 influenced his path to food activism, his love of working with communities in Durham, and his decision to pursue med school:
“Duke has a lot of power in the Durham community and we as students can advocate for and embody the sharing of power and resources back to the wider Durham community and the brilliant organizations that work every day to improve it. My work with Root Causes is the result of a lot of seeds that were planted by taking Spanish 306 as a freshman all the way through clinical rotations where I’ve treated patients whose life experience and illnesses are made and broken every day by our racism/sexism/other forms of oppression and the food systems, housing, public transport, and educational systems that surround them.”
Clifford
