With less than a month remaining in Manipal assignments are starting to pile up and time seems to be going faster than ever. With only a few more adventures to go I thought I should write an update on how the study part of study abroad is going.
Contemporary India
Contemporary India is a core class that all study abroad students are required to take at Manipal. This course is taught just for our cohort so it is a small class. This initially seemed great, as it would allow us to delve much deeper into complex issues and have intelligent, focused discussions. As such it was one that I was most looking forward to. However as time has worn on, it has become more and more excruciating. India is so clearly a complex society, full of contradictions, and filled with such rich culture and traditions, but our professor manages to take all the complexity out of the system and describe Indian society like he is reading from an encyclopedia (I think he actually is sometimes. One of the three readings he assigned to us was an encyclopedia article on religions of India).
While I feel like I have a good grasp on history, since his poor time management and planning led us to study history for more than half the semester despite only allocating two weeks for it in the original syllabus, there are still so many questions still left unanswered. I can recite important dates and names but I am still not sure how everything connects. The lack of readings for the class makes it even more one-dimensional. He also talks so slowly I’m able write down every single word he says while also having time to do some great doodles in the margins of my notebook.
Now that we are finally getting into more interesting and complex issues related to contemporary culture, the class has gotten slightly more interesting, but only slightly. Our class on caste failed to address any contemporary issues surrounding caste, merely just describing that there were castes, what some of them were, and where they might have come from. Our class on gender was read straight from a reading we were already assigned and failed to delve further into the issues. I had to call my professor out at one point about completely misrepresenting the author’s argument. While he almost allowed us to have a discussion on this topic, he always cut it off before we could really get further into the issues.
Anyway, while this class had great potential it has really fallen short of any expectations I had and I only feel slightly more well versed about contemporary India than I could have been after spending a few days of reading about it.
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is another one of my core classes here, though it is not required for all study abroad students. It is a part of the MPH program and is taught in a lecture hall with the public health masters students. This is the second semester continuation of epidemiology that they started in the fall so we’ve missed out on key information necessary to understand epi as a whole, but it has not been hard to pick up the concepts we are taught in the class. This semester we have mostly talked about measures of occurrence and study designs. Mid-way through the semester our professors changed and while I loved the original professor, I am less than a fan of the new one. She has only just graduated the MPH program herself and therefore only has slightly more knowledge on the topics than the students in the class. She uses slides the other professor has prepared and as a result, is unable to go beyond the immediate concepts and answer basic questions without going and researching it first. Since she is also only a few years senior to most of the students there also is a relative lack of respect for her in the classroom (respect is really important in Indian classrooms) and her authority is frequently undermined. Not to mention, she is very dull and uses “isn’t it?” at the end of every sentence. Needless to say, this class has taken a turn for the worse and if I ever intend on using epidemiology, which is likely as it is the most basic part of public health, I might have to do some revision on my own or with the public health department back at AU.
Surveillance of Infectious Diseases
Surveillance is one of my public health electives and is also taught in lecture-style with MPH students. The professor is absolutely great: he is always very well prepared and engaging, has years of practical field experience he brings to the classroom, and is very entertaining (though many of his jokes are pretty politically incorrect). This class focuses on different types of surveillance systems, how they work in theory versus practice, and uses specific diseases as examples (we have learned a LOT about polio eradication!). I have learned SO much not only about the Indian healthcare and surveillance systems in this class, which is great because most of my public health classes are very globally and generally focused. Studying for this class is always a challenge though because he expects direct regurgitation of the PowerPoint’s, which are hundreds of slides long and are densely filled with text. But I have learned a lot as a result!
Maternal and Child Health
Maternal and Child health is a small class with only a few of the public health students. Our professor takes advantage of this and makes sure everyone participates in his class, which is great because it keeps us engaged and forces us to think critically about the material. We also focus a lot on developing countries, which I appreciate, and each topic is covered extensively and with great depth. Topics we have covered so far include antenatal care, diarrhea, childhood immunizations, anemia in pregnancy, nutrition and public health interventions, and low birth weight. While it got off to a slow start, this class is easily one of my favorites now. It also doesn’t hurt that the midterm (and maybe final??) was self-graded.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine that was developed over 5,000 years ago in the Indus Valley Civilization but still plays an important role in Indian medicine today. This class is taught just for study abroad students and is extremely well organized and planned out. There are five modules, each on different topics that are taught by different faculty members in the department. Some of the topics have been on basics of Ayurveda, Ayurvedic treatments, pharmacology, etc. In addition to the lectures, we also have practical classes each week where we either get to experience different procedures or watch them being done on our classmates. Some of these procedures have included oil baths, massages, and heat therapies. I participated in a treatment where hot oil pads were tied around my head after a head massage and another where a lemon/ turmeric mixture were placed in fabric sacs, heated on a stove, and rubbed around my neck and shoulders. Ayurveda is another of my favorite classes because it exposes us to such different ways of knowing and thinking than we get at home. It is also great to get to hear about so many different branches of Ayurveda from many different points of view and then get to see/experience some of it in action.
Overall, classes have been relatively easy this semester and the only work we’ve really had has been right around midterms and finals, though we now also have a bunch of papers and presentations coming up. This has been good and bad. Good in that it has really given us time to explore this country and get to know Manipal, but bad in that I think we could have learned a lot more and been more challenged/engaged throughout the process. That being said, I still learned so much just from being here, sitting in classes with Indian students, and participating in a system so different from back home. The Friday field visits to different health facilities have also been a great addition and have really helped paint of picture of healthcare in India.
Contemporary India
Contemporary India is a core class that all study abroad students are required to take at Manipal. This course is taught just for our cohort so it is a small class. This initially seemed great, as it would allow us to delve much deeper into complex issues and have intelligent, focused discussions. As such it was one that I was most looking forward to. However as time has worn on, it has become more and more excruciating. India is so clearly a complex society, full of contradictions, and filled with such rich culture and traditions, but our professor manages to take all the complexity out of the system and describe Indian society like he is reading from an encyclopedia (I think he actually is sometimes. One of the three readings he assigned to us was an encyclopedia article on religions of India).
While I feel like I have a good grasp on history, since his poor time management and planning led us to study history for more than half the semester despite only allocating two weeks for it in the original syllabus, there are still so many questions still left unanswered. I can recite important dates and names but I am still not sure how everything connects. The lack of readings for the class makes it even more one-dimensional. He also talks so slowly I’m able write down every single word he says while also having time to do some great doodles in the margins of my notebook.
Now that we are finally getting into more interesting and complex issues related to contemporary culture, the class has gotten slightly more interesting, but only slightly. Our class on caste failed to address any contemporary issues surrounding caste, merely just describing that there were castes, what some of them were, and where they might have come from. Our class on gender was read straight from a reading we were already assigned and failed to delve further into the issues. I had to call my professor out at one point about completely misrepresenting the author’s argument. While he almost allowed us to have a discussion on this topic, he always cut it off before we could really get further into the issues.
Anyway, while this class had great potential it has really fallen short of any expectations I had and I only feel slightly more well versed about contemporary India than I could have been after spending a few days of reading about it.
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is another one of my core classes here, though it is not required for all study abroad students. It is a part of the MPH program and is taught in a lecture hall with the public health masters students. This is the second semester continuation of epidemiology that they started in the fall so we’ve missed out on key information necessary to understand epi as a whole, but it has not been hard to pick up the concepts we are taught in the class. This semester we have mostly talked about measures of occurrence and study designs. Mid-way through the semester our professors changed and while I loved the original professor, I am less than a fan of the new one. She has only just graduated the MPH program herself and therefore only has slightly more knowledge on the topics than the students in the class. She uses slides the other professor has prepared and as a result, is unable to go beyond the immediate concepts and answer basic questions without going and researching it first. Since she is also only a few years senior to most of the students there also is a relative lack of respect for her in the classroom (respect is really important in Indian classrooms) and her authority is frequently undermined. Not to mention, she is very dull and uses “isn’t it?” at the end of every sentence. Needless to say, this class has taken a turn for the worse and if I ever intend on using epidemiology, which is likely as it is the most basic part of public health, I might have to do some revision on my own or with the public health department back at AU.
Surveillance of Infectious Diseases
Surveillance is one of my public health electives and is also taught in lecture-style with MPH students. The professor is absolutely great: he is always very well prepared and engaging, has years of practical field experience he brings to the classroom, and is very entertaining (though many of his jokes are pretty politically incorrect). This class focuses on different types of surveillance systems, how they work in theory versus practice, and uses specific diseases as examples (we have learned a LOT about polio eradication!). I have learned SO much not only about the Indian healthcare and surveillance systems in this class, which is great because most of my public health classes are very globally and generally focused. Studying for this class is always a challenge though because he expects direct regurgitation of the PowerPoint’s, which are hundreds of slides long and are densely filled with text. But I have learned a lot as a result!
Maternal and Child Health
Maternal and Child health is a small class with only a few of the public health students. Our professor takes advantage of this and makes sure everyone participates in his class, which is great because it keeps us engaged and forces us to think critically about the material. We also focus a lot on developing countries, which I appreciate, and each topic is covered extensively and with great depth. Topics we have covered so far include antenatal care, diarrhea, childhood immunizations, anemia in pregnancy, nutrition and public health interventions, and low birth weight. While it got off to a slow start, this class is easily one of my favorites now. It also doesn’t hurt that the midterm (and maybe final??) was self-graded.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine that was developed over 5,000 years ago in the Indus Valley Civilization but still plays an important role in Indian medicine today. This class is taught just for study abroad students and is extremely well organized and planned out. There are five modules, each on different topics that are taught by different faculty members in the department. Some of the topics have been on basics of Ayurveda, Ayurvedic treatments, pharmacology, etc. In addition to the lectures, we also have practical classes each week where we either get to experience different procedures or watch them being done on our classmates. Some of these procedures have included oil baths, massages, and heat therapies. I participated in a treatment where hot oil pads were tied around my head after a head massage and another where a lemon/ turmeric mixture were placed in fabric sacs, heated on a stove, and rubbed around my neck and shoulders. Ayurveda is another of my favorite classes because it exposes us to such different ways of knowing and thinking than we get at home. It is also great to get to hear about so many different branches of Ayurveda from many different points of view and then get to see/experience some of it in action.
Overall, classes have been relatively easy this semester and the only work we’ve really had has been right around midterms and finals, though we now also have a bunch of papers and presentations coming up. This has been good and bad. Good in that it has really given us time to explore this country and get to know Manipal, but bad in that I think we could have learned a lot more and been more challenged/engaged throughout the process. That being said, I still learned so much just from being here, sitting in classes with Indian students, and participating in a system so different from back home. The Friday field visits to different health facilities have also been a great addition and have really helped paint of picture of healthcare in India.