Upcoming Events

Polycrisis has become the new term to reference the multiple intersecting crises that are posing global health threats. This upcoming seminar will unpack some of these crises, beginning with the chaotic disruptions to health and economic order engineered by Donald Trump’s second presidency and his administration’s coterie of enabling loyalists. It will identify some of the key elements of ‘Donald Trump as Polycrisis’ before locating them in the history of predatory capitalism and its consumptogenic necessity. It concludes with a discussion of the potential for alternative economic paradigms, many embedded under the rubric of ‘wellbeing economics.’ It will also launch the newest edition of the People’s Health Movement’s flagship triannual publication, Global Health Watch 7: Mobilizing for Health Justice, from which some of the elements of the talk are taken.

In preparation for this seminar, Dr. Labonté has recommended reading Global Health Watch 7 Introduction and Chapter A1.

PDF Copies and citations of recommended readings for this seminar and all others for the semester can be found here.

Speaker Profile

Ronald Labonté is Professor Emeritus and former Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity in the School of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Ottawa. For the past 30 years his research has focused on the health equity impacts of diverse globalization processes, on topics ranging from health worker migration; medical tourism; global health diplomacy; trade, political economy and tobacco control; trade and food security; health impact assessments of trade and investment treaties; comprehensive primary health care reforms; the social determinants of health equity; health and foreign policy; and global governance of infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance. He is active with the People’s Health Movement, has consulted extensively with UN agencies, governments and civil society organizations, and is an Editor-in-Chief of the BMC journal, Globalization and Health.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 14, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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Across contemporary conflict zones, the clinic—the central institution of modern medicine—is increasingly fragile. From Gaza’s devastated hospitals to Mosul’s shattered medical infrastructures, war has undone the basic conditions that once sustained clinical practice. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic research in the Middle East, this talk explores the afterlives of the clinic: the provisional, improvised, and often fragmented forms of care that emerge when hospitals collapse, laboratories fail, and medical records scatter across borders.

These disrupted conditions also shape patterns of antimicrobial resistance, where shortages, displacement, and repeated interruptions to care leave lasting microbial and therapeutic consequences. As patients move between cities and countries seeking treatment, they carry with them both the scars and complications of systems that can no longer guarantee continuity.

By rethinking global health from these settings, the talk asks what it means to practice and support medicine amid chronic instability—and how humanitarian, clinical, and planetary health frameworks must adapt to a world where care unfolds in ruins.

In preparation for this seminar, Dr. Dewachi has recommended reading I Was a Doctor in Iraq. I Am Seeing a Nightmare Play Out Again.

PDF Copies and citations of recommended readings for this seminar and all others for the semester can be found here.

Speaker Profile

Omar Dewachi is a medical anthropologist, historian, and former physician whose work examines how decades of war and displacement in the Middle East have reshaped medical infrastructures, therapeutic practices, and microbial life. He is Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. His scholarship bridges medical anthropology, global health, humanitarian studies, and the history of science, with publications in The Lancet, Global Public Health, and leading anthropology journals, as well as commentary featured in The New York Times. Dewachi is the author of Ungovernable Life and is completing his forthcoming book, Death of the Clinic, which traces the collapse and afterlives of medicine in conflict settings. His research informs global debates on health, conflict, and the futures of care.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, February 4, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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Systematic review and meta-analysis techniques produce precise estimates of empirical studies to address issues that are pertinent for policy, practice, and future study. The application can also reveal unnoticed patterns in the results of previous studies, producing new insights. For these reasons, there has been an increase in the use of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the social, medical, and natural sciences.

Hosted by Dahdaleh faculty fellow Godfred Boateng and facilitated by Dr. Reginald Quansah, this four-day course will discuss the fundamentals methods in systematic reviews and meta-analysis. It will include a series of lectures, exercises, group discussions, and supervised statistical training sessions.

This is a non-degree course is appropriate for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty, and senior researchers who have interest in evidence synthesis. Participants should have completed introductory courses in research methods and statistics.

Learning Objectives

Systematic review and meta-analysis method research is extremely useful in the era where a huge amount of research is produced each year, often with conflicting findings. In those instances, it can offer scientifically sound and powerful alternatives that can overcome the difficulties in addressing bias, heterogeneity and quality of the studies. However, often a poorly conducted systematic review and meta-analysis could yield misleading results. Therefore, various guidelines have been suggested to help standardized the independent study findings and to improve quality research.

In this course, participants will gain a better understanding of systematic review and meta-analysis and gain the following skills:

1. Recognize features of systematic reviews and meta-analyses as a research design
2. Identify the elements of a well-defined review question
3. Understand and develop search strategies
4. Perform a comprehensive search for relevant studies
5. Manage the results of systematic searches
6. Extract data and assess risk of bias of included studies
7. Understand and carry out quantitative analysis of extracted data
8. Apply the methodology and conduct reviews independently

Certificate will be issued upon completion.

Fees

$100 for faculty

$50 for students (use promo code SRMA26 to apply the discount)

If you have any questions, please email Godfred Boateng

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Register below and join us on Tuesday, February 17 at 9:00 a.m.

How do health systems adapt when governance is shared across federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments? How do advocates navigate the complexity of Indigenous health policy in Canada, where jurisdictional boundaries, cultural priorities, and reconciliation commitments converge?

Dr. Sandra Romain brings extensive experience in policy development, health transformation, and intergovernmental relations. Drawing on real-world examples, she will explore collaborative strategies, systemic barriers, and policy innovations that shape health outcomes for Indigenous communities.

Attendees will gain a critical understanding of governance challenges and practical approaches to advancing equity and culturally grounded solutions in health policy.

In preparation for this seminar, Dr. Romain has recommended reading the Inuit Nunangat Policy.

PDF Copies and citations of recommended readings for this seminar and all others for the semester can be found here.

Speaker Profile

Sandra Romain is a Medical Anthropologist and senior policy leader in the Government of Canada, specializing in Indigenous and Inuit health. She has held leadership roles at Indigenous Services Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, where she advanced strategic policy initiatives in public health and economic reconciliation. Her work includes intergovernmental collaboration on the National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy, tuberculosis elimination, vaccine confidence and Indigenous entrepreneurship programs.

Dr. Romain’s research and policy experience emphasize culturally informed approaches to health systems and governance. She has published widely on Indigenous health and pharmaceutical care in remote communities and serves on national research ethics boards.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, April 1, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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