Juniors picked as Adel Mahmoud scholars

Irfan Kherani ’11, a molecular biology concentrator pursuing certificates in Global Health and Health Policy and Theater and Dance, will research the ways in which governments combat pandemic flus. Following an internship at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, he will travel to South Africa and Australia to research the two countries’ responses to the H1N1 outbreak. Kherani became interested in the politics surrounding the outbreak of infectious diseases following his work on HIV/AIDS in South Africa last summer.

Kherani’s summer research will inform his senior thesis, which will be combine science and policy, he said.

“The big question my thesis is going to ask is, ‘How can we manage a pandemic flu?’ “ Kherani explained. “Part of answering that question is looking at how, from a policy standpoint, we can manage ... when to introduce the vaccine at the best time.”

Lea Steinacker ’11, a Wilson School major pursuing a certificate in African studies, will use her scholarship to explore “reproductive health issues during the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya, with a focus on sexualized violence,” she said in an e-mail.

Steinacker noted that, in areas of conflict with a high incidence of sexual violence, poor reproductive health care is a leading cause of death and disease.

“I have been ... shocked at the level of inaction with which the international policy-making community has responded to their needs,” Steinacker said. “Violence against women and girls has been called the most pervasive yet least-recognized human rights abuse in the world. That needs to change.”

Steinacker is currently studying abroad in Cairo, Egypt.

Daniel Echelman ’11, a chemistry concentrator pursuing a certificate in Global Health and Health Policy, will spend the summer in Nakuru, Kenya. Echelman will evaluate the role of street theater in addressing breast cancer awareness, a topic he began exploring last year.

This summer will be his second working with TEARS Group Kenya, an organization that has performed street theater shows to raise HIV/AIDS awareness for the past seven years, Echelman said. Last summer, Echelman worked with Swahili professor Mahiri Mwita to investigate whether or not “the same [street theater] technique can be applied to women’s cancers, particularly breast cancers.”

The scholarship, Echelman noted, “gives an amazing independence ... I get to figure out what questions I want to ask, and I have more than the resources I need to pursue them.”

Like Echelman, anthropology major Josh Franklin ’11 will use the scholarship to continue prior research. Franklin is also pursuing certificates in Russian Language and Literature and Portuguese Language and Culture.

Franklin will travel to Brazil this summer to study issues surrounding access to healthcare. Since the Brazilian government guaranteed citizens the right to health in 1988, Franklin explained, patients began to sue the government for medicine and treatment in a new phenomenon termed “judicialization.” Under the mentorship of anthropology professor Joao Biehl, Franklin became interested in a 2007 legal case in which transsexual patients could receive free sex reassignment surgery following a diagnosis from a psychiatrist.

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“I want to understand what life is like for these transsexual patients, and, more specifically, how their lives are shaped and affected by ... these broad systems — understandings of gender in Brazil, politics of healthcare, the politics of being progressive in Brazil,” Franklin explained.

The other scholars — Mathias Esmann ’11, Brooke Peterson ’11, Lisa Tom ’11 and Alyse Wheelock ’11 — could not be reached for comment.

The program, named in honor of molecular biology and Wilson School professor Adel Mahmoud, funds juniors seeking to pursue internships and senior thesis research related to global health. Created in 2007, the program is directed by the Center for Health and Wellbeing and is funded by a grant from The Merck Company Foundation.