Research and Internship Opportunities in the Middle East

[lgirl60]

Hello All,
I am looking to go back to school in fall of 2016 and do an MPH in Epidemiology. I would love to combine my passion for public health with my foreign languages skills in French and Arabic/ general interest in the Middle East and gain some career experience there. Does anyone know of any American or Canadian public health schools where there are faculty, especially epidemiology, doing work in the Middle East? This was quite difficult to Google. I am open to different regions or countries, whether it is the Maghreb, the Gulf region, Lebanon, etc.

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[Solara]

I don't know of any particular *people*, but I did google "lancet health arab world," and if you read through the articles in the search results, you'll come across authors who work in these areas. You can look through all their profiles and see if anything interests you:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lancet heath arab world

So, are you looking to actually work in the Middle East, or do research with professors that do research on health in the Middle East (like doing research at a US University for a year)?

If you want to travel, you'll have to search for paid opportunities, which may be tough to find. Read this link, where the faculty talks about just sending people at organizations emails to see if they'll let you work (though oftentimes it's unpaid; but sometimes it's one of the few ways to gain valuable experience)

http://karengrepin.com/2012/03/finding-a-summer-internship-in-global-health.html

There may not be an official posting for a job, so sometimes you just have to email people directly and see if they'll take you. It's oftentimes hard getting internships/jobs in developing country settings.

Finally, I would just email any professors you find doing research in this area (even if they're at a university far from you, if you've never heard of them, etc) asking if you can do research with them (like a research assistant). Maybe you'll get paid, maybe you won't, idk. Oftentimes professors doing research will have international collaborations in the countries they're working with. You can ask these professors if they can hook you up with the people they know.

Oftentimes undergrad universities offer travel grants for their students to do research for a summer or semester. IF you're not at school currently, that may be tough to pursue. But see where you can get funding.

Sry that was sort of all of the place, probably didn't directly answer your question but maybe you'll have something to go off of. Don't be afraid to email random professors with ideas or things you're interested in. You never know where that road may take you. Good luck!

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I'd suggest looking at faculty profiles for schools that you'd be interested in attending. Many schools will list research interests or even current/past research projects that their faculty are involved in. If you do find some professors that are doing or have done research in the Middle East, you could always e-mail them to see if it's a continued interest of theirs.