Call for Applications
Palestine Social Medicine Course
10-21 August, 2025
The Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, in collaboration with the World Health Organization office for the occupied Palestinian territory, is proud to host the third annual Palestine Social Medicine Course—an intensive two-week summer program that explores the social and structural determinants of health in Palestine, moving ‘beyond the biological basis of disease.’
Background
Social and structural determinants of health are widely recognized as having a profound and disproportionate impact on both individual and community health and well-being. In the Palestinian context, these determinants pose challenges that far exceed the capacities of a traditional biomedical approach. To complement biomedical training, the social medicine framework provides a vital lens for understanding and addressing these broader forces shaping health. Successful social medicine courses around the world have trained hundreds of health professional students through a model that emphasizes self-reflection, collaborative partnerships, and praxis. This transformative approach offers a deeper examination of political, historical, and geographic factors that is essential to understanding health outcomes for marginalized populations while also supporting the development of practitioners equipped with the tools and perspective needed to advance health equity in Palestine and beyond.
Course Objectives
The course is designed to achieve the following core objectives:
- Educate Palestinian and international health professional students on the social and structural determinants of health in Palestine, with a focus on real-world examples of barriers to care and strategies for their mitigation or resolution.
- Foster an appreciation for historically grounded and geographically expansive approaches to understanding the complexity of health inequities in Palestine.
- Introduce core lessons from established social medicine courses around the world, emphasizing the importance of:
○ Building equitable partnerships
○ Embracing discomfort as a catalyst for growth
○ Linking critical reflection with action through praxis
○ Cultivating intentional community - Develop a growing network of structurally competent health professionals committed to addressing health inequities locally, nationally, and globally.
Curriculum Overview
The course curriculum is designed to deepen learners’ understanding of social medicine, the social and structural determinants of health, health activism, and the historical, social, and political context of Palestine. Core topics will include:
- Self-awareness and structural humility
- Introduction to social medicine and structural competency
- Social medicine and structural competency approaches to clinical encounters
- A social sciences approach to disease in Palestine
- The human rights framework and the right to health in Palestine
- Health and culture in Palestine
- The structures and impacts of colonialism and settler colonialism in Palestine
- Health impacts of structural racism
- Intersecting systems of apartheid: political and medical dimensions
- Case studies in Palestinian health
- Access and barriers to healthcare across Palestine, Israel, and the Palestinian diaspora
Course Structure
The course will be led by instructors with expertise in social medicine and Palestinian health in collaboration with partners from the World Health Organization-oPt. Guest speakers will include a diverse range of voices from the health and social sectors, including healthcare professionals, academics, civil society representatives, community organizers, and health activists from both local, regional, and international organizations.
Location
The course will be held virtually. Instruction hours will range daily but will take place between 12pm - 5pm EEST (Palestine time) // 10am - 3pm BST // 5am - 10am EST.
If you are based in a different time zone, please apply only if you are able to commit to attending sessions during these hours.
Eligibility
The course will accommodate up to 30 students, with priority given to those studying Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, or Social Sciences. Applications are open to all students, though preference will be given to graduate students and senior undergraduates.
- The course will be taught in English. English proficiency will be required.
Deadline and Application
The application deadline is Monday, July 7th, 2025 at midnight. Apply using this link.
For questions regarding the social medicine course, please reach out to: [email protected]