The College of Charleston welcomed back two alumni on July 10, 2014 to teach a Summer II course titled Global Perspectives on Poverty, Inequality and Vulnerability. Honors College alumni Melissa Siegel ’03 and Stephanie Wheeler ’03 are co-teaching the class.
Siegel, a former economics major, is an associate professor in the Netherlands at Maastricht University’s Graduate School of Governance and a senior researcher and the United Nations University where she heads the Migration Studies research group. Wheeler, a former double major in biology and theatre, is an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Honors College dean Trisha Folds-Bennett reached out to Siegel and Wheeler, both active alumni, about returning to teach the four-week course.
“We are thrilled to be back on campus working with Honors College students this summer,” Wheeler said. “Poverty, vulnerability, and health are timely and important concepts for students to understand domestically and internationally. In the context of ongoing welfare debates, health reform, changing immigration policies, and economies in flux, there’s no better time to teach this course. I’m also excited to see that the College now offers a public health degree program!”
“Mine and Stephanie’s fields are different but very closely intertwined,” Siegel said. “Integrating health policy and migration studies through this class will give students a realistic picture of both subjects.”
11 students are enrolled in the public health course, which focuses on poverty, inequality and vulnerability in society. The course concludes August 8, 2014.
