Invited Guest Speakers
The Global Health NB initiative is also an opportunity for a larger and diverse audience in New Brunswick to understand the importance of health issues abroad to draw lessons and connections to local health.
Healing at a Crossroads between Traditional Knowledge and Science
(Lecture 2021)
Pedro Reygadas, PhD
Dr. Reygadas works at the InterCultural and Indigenous University of Michoacan. He has a PhD in Anthropology from Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History, MA in Philosophy from York University, and MA in Linguistics from Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History. He is also a human rights activist in Mexico.
The talk critically analyzed how conventional Western medicine tends to focus on individual physicality at the expense of the mental, the spiritual and the social. In contrast, traditional knowledge places emphasis on energy, matter, information, and spirituality, which is usually dismissed by mainstream medical science. Yet, different paths to healing and health have been paved by the complementarity of traditional knowledge and medicine, which have been evident in quantum physics and epigenetics. Such complementarity is central to notions of health and healing that do not only center around the individual but also expand to the community and the environment as described in the concept of buen vivir (good living) rooted in the worldview of the Quechua peoples of the Andes.
Cuban's Health Care and Medical Diplomacy
(Lecture 2022)
John Kirk, PhD
Dr. Kirk is a Professor at Dalhousie University. His research has focused on contemporary Cuba, and he is the author/co-editor of several books on that country, including Cuba at the Crossroads (2020), Cuban Foreign Policy: Transformation under Raúl Castro (2018), Healthcare without Borders: Understanding Cuban Medical Internationalism (2015). He has worked as a consultant for several Canadian businesses and NGOs working in Cuba, has given invited testimony to the Foreign Affairs committees of the House of Commons and Senate, and has delivered lectures on Cuba in Canada, the United States and various countries in Europe and Latin America.
Press link here to see the recorded talk
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We are hoping to put together a talk on indigenous views on maternal health with two speakers from Mexico and Canada.
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We are hoping to organize a talk with a specialist on the environment and health