INSTITUTE OF HEALTH EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE RESEARCH
The Migration & Health Initiative (MHI) is aimed at developing interdisciplinary collaborations between academic and community scholars that work in the field of migration and its relationship to health or well-being. The MHI explicitly attempts to create spaces where scholarship and critical inquiry are collaboratively developed and challenged within and from outside of the academy in its 3 components: 1) a journal club where doctoral students, fellows, and faculty come together to discuss critical and empirical works from a range of scholarly traditions; 2) events focused on issues related to migration that highlight clinical, community, policy, other non-academic approaches; 3) project development between academic and community partners focused on collective, social justice oriented approaches towards migration.
The journal club is a reading-based discussion group that brings together doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty at Northeastern University. Readings focus on works that provide critical analyses of migration and migration-related issues from a range of disciplines; past readings have been drawn from public health, psychology, international policy, English, sociology, and anthropology. The group meets 3 times per semester in the Fall and Spring, with a preference for in-person attendance but with a hybrid option available. For those interested, please contact Dr. Carmel Salhi.
Sima Bou Jawde (Moderator)
Graduate Student and LZC Fellow
Northeastern University
Fatima Ahmed
Executive Director
Muslim Justice League
Dr. Carmel Salhi
Associate Professor of Health Sciences
Northeastern University
Dr. Jessica Santos
Director
Leah Zallman Center for Immigrant Health Research, Institute for Community Health
This was a panel event and Q&A moderated by graduate student and LZC fellow Sima Bou Jawde. The panelists discussed immigration systems and policies put in place after 9/11 that continues to shape immigrant women’s experiences today. The speakers also discussed tools to combat essentialization and exclusion in your everyday work and life.
Dr. Alexandra Chen
Child Psychologist, United Nations Advisor, Founder, and Clinical Director
Healing for Gaza and Early Light Lab
This was a small group discussion with Dr. Alexandra Chen and graduate students. She discussed lessons learned in starting an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) and appealing to funders in sustaining evidence-based practice and research.
Dr. Alexandra Chen
Child Psychologist, United Nations Advisor, Founder, and Clinical Director
Healing for Gaza and Early Light Lab
This was a talk by United Nations advisor and child trauma psychologist Dr. Alexandra Chen. Dr. Chen shared profound lessons on grappling with ethics, privilege, power, voice, data, and mobilizing for change in humanitarian emergencies and development aid. Targeted towards undergraduate and graduate students, she shared their implications on starting and building a career in global health, with a focus on global mental health. Dr. Chen also shared insights on navigating upcoming research, clinical, and field-practice opportunities in humanitarian aid.
For almost two decades, Dr. Chen has been working with UN agencies, government ministries, and non-profits to design, implement, and study mental health, early childhood development, refugee education and sexual violence in the Middle East and Africa. As a researcher in global mental health and child psychology, Dr. Chen has also published in The Lancet, Child Development, and other academic journals on the neuropsychological impact of trauma and toxic stress on refugee children’s cognitive functioning and parent mental health in war.
She is the Founder and Clinical Director Healing for Gaza, which provides trauma therapy to Palestinians orphans, amputees, parents and frontliners from Gaza. Dr. Chen is also the Founder of Early Light Lab, a science-driven research lab advising policy and practice for children in armed conflict. She speaks 10 languages, including Arabic, French, and Chinese.
Cristina Aguilera Sandoval
Executive Director
Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants
Dr. Jessica Santos
Director
Leah Zallman Center for Immigrant Health Research
Dr. Danielle Crookes
Assistant Professor of Health Sciences and Sociology
Northeastern University
This was a panel event and Q&A about how research, policy, and community action can respond to the systems and structures shaping migration and health! Our speakers discussed the sociopolitical environment and immigrants’ health, environment and immigrants’ health, economic and food justice, the housing crisis, counter-narrative and policy advocacy strategies, community- and state-led responses to migration, and integrating structural perspectives into policy. Panelists shared examples from their work in academic research, community scholarship, advocacy, and policy.
Rebecca Leu
Community Design and Planning Manager
Asian Community Development Corporation
Dr. Heang Leung Rubin
Principal and Founder
CHIC Community Engagement Consulting
Dr. MyDzung Chu
Assistant Professor in the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine
Tufts Medical Center,
Director of ADAPT (Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational research) Coalition
Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Dr. Lily Song
Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice, and the Built Environment, Faculty Lead of Anti-displacement Studio Northeastern University
This was a panel event of speakers discussing community perseverance in Chinatown! Panelists discussed creative placemaking/keeping, green open space improvement, and anti-displacement efforts, as well as community-centered and relational approaches to understanding health and well-being.
Dr. Alexandra Chen
Founder of Healing for Gaza,
Founder of Early Light Lab
This was its first event of the year, a talk and discussion with Dr. Alexandra Chen, founder of “Healing for Gaza“. Dr. Chen is a child psychologist specializing in work with refugees and trauma. She spoke on Healing for Gaza’s approach to working with Palestinians displaced from Gaza and providing clinical care in the context of ongoing state violence. Dr. Chen has over 15 years experience working in the Middle East and Africa advising the UN, government ministries, and non-profit agencies to design mental health and early childhood interventions. She speaks 10 languages, including Arabic, French, and Chinese.
