Congratulations to Lillian Walkover, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication and the Global Health Program, on the publication of Case Studies in Global Health: Illuminating Theory and Practice.

The field of Global Health can be complex and challenging to navigate. This fascinating set of case studies not only illustrates the global interconnectedness of health issues across different continents but also brings clarity to the range of social theories used to make sense of the construction and distribution of health and illness around the world.

Below, Professor Walkover shares insights into the inspiration behind Case Studies in Global Health: Illuminating Theory and Practice, the value of case study learning in global health education, her journey into global health and academia at UC San Diego, and key skills students should develop for careers in the field.

What inspired you to create Case Studies in Global Health: Illuminating Theory and Practice, and what gap were you hoping it would fill for students?

This book came out of the experiences of the UCSF HEAL Fellowship, which was founded by Drs. Phuoc V. Le and Sriram Shamasunder. In the first years of the fellowship, as fellows shared their work and experiences with one another and the HEAL team, the idea to put together a book started to develop. At the same time, Phuoc and Sri were teaching undergraduate courses at UC Berkeley, and while they saw plenty of great case studies and readings on foundational social theories, they could not find teaching materials that brought the two together - a book that used case studies to illustrate the benefits of using social theory in global health. So they asked the HEAL fellows to propose case studies, and invited social scientists to collaborate as co-authors. This is how I got involved in the book - I was a doctoral student in Sociology at UCSF at the time, and had worked with HEAL fellows on training related to structural competency, including a new case study based on a HEAL fellow’s fieldwork. This became the basis for a chapter. After joining the UCSD faculty, I was invited to become the lead social science editor, building on the foundation that Dr. Le, Dr. Shamasunder, Jade (Jack) Fukushima, and other collaborators had created. In the end, the book includes 5 case studies based in different countries, paired with different social theories, created by a total of 28 authors - and made possible by those who generously shared their stories, as well as the support of many others.

Why do you think case study learning is especially valuable for students preparing for careers in global health?

Doing global health work well requires responding both to the particulars of a situation, and understanding how a particular health situation or campaign relates to larger patterns and histories. Case studies can help us understand and learn from the details of a story - a location with a particular history, intersecting with a disease or health challenge with its own changing patterns - while the social theory lens can help us to ‘zoom out’ and think about how this story, this case, this intervention is related to larger patterns, and to related situations we might be navigating. In turn, that can help us to think about how our work is interconnected, and how to continue to build a world where health for all is possible.

Was there a particular case in the book that deeply impacted you or changed the way you think about global health practice?

Of course, each chapter impacted me in a different way. I teach the structural competency case study in the chapter I co-authored regularly in GLBH 20: Introduction to Global Health and ANSC/GLBH 148: Global Health and Cultural Diversity, so that has a very direct impact here at UCSD. Doing the research to revise the introduction to the case study set in Haiti, using a postcolonial analysis, also changed the way I teach and talk about that history. And more recently, finalizing and sharing back material from the chapter set in Navajo Nation provided an invaluable opportunity to work directly with the authors - including the person whose story is being told. Hearing about her experiences, and how she thinks about sharing her story, was a powerful reminder that we should pursue this type of collaboration whenever possible.

Can you share a bit about your own journey into global health and academia, and what led you to UC San Diego?

The thing that draws me to global health as a field is the way it insists on thinking across scales - the way that we see the same patterns on individual levels, in neighborhoods, cities, and then between countries - in combination with the unique experiences and details of people’s lives and combined histories. As an undergraduate student, I double-majored in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry and Science & Technology Studies - exploring both the tools of the scientific craft and social science tools to analyze that process from a different perspective. After working at an HIV-focused non-profit in India for two years, I joined Hesperian Health Guides in Berkeley - and combined these experiences to inform my dissertation at UCSF, exploring how Hesperian’s books, including the community health guide Where There Is No Doctor have been translated and adapted in India. This led to a postdoctoral project working with Dr. Susan Bell at Drexel University, on a study of the experiences and career paths of physicians who enter the US as refugees. I joined UCSD in 2020, at a critical moment for global health, jointly appointed in the Department of Communication and Global Health Program. Here, I have the opportunity to teach a wide range of students, while continuing to pursue research about the production and movement of global health knowledges.

For students interested in global health careers, what skills do you think are most critical to develop right now?

Right now - and arguably always - the skills that I think are most critical to global health are a combination of depth of knowledge with flexibility and eagerness to learn. Having a few areas - topic areas, skills, geographic and linguistic knowledge - in which you really invest time and energy is very important, and gives you a depth of understanding in particular areas, and clear strengths to bring to different projects. On the other hand, the global health landscape is always changing - in terms of economic and social structures, as well as biological, environmental, and political drivers of health and illness, all of which interact in complex ways. Both willingness and excitement to take on new challenges, and to learn from those you are hoping to support, as well as from colleagues and mentors, is key. Funding and jobs may shift, but this work will always be needed, and there will always be ways to get involved.

Here is a link to read the free, digital Open Access version of Case Studies in Global Health: Illuminating Theory and Practice.