Healthy People and Healthy Society: A Winter School on Public Health

Beyond symptoms, treatments, doctors, and hospitals, the health of the population is about people’s interactions with immediate and distant contexts, such as home and work environments and living conditions. It is also about the policy which shapes not only the nature of interaction but the larger context itself. The intersection of health and society has attracted widespread attention due to demographic transitions and the growing influence of social and commercial determinants of health. For example, topics range from the impact of housing and living conditions on population health and the role of commercial entities in shaping people’s choices and influencing their health to growing health inequities and the burden of caring for the ageing population.

Therefore, it is essential to examine these issues from a perspective that extends beyond the purely biomedical framework. Such inquiries may help answer questions like: How do housing, livelihood, and policy influence health? Why do some communities stay healthier than others? How do we make sense of such patterns through data, stories, and lived experiences?

The Winter School invites participants to explore these questions through an interdisciplinary, data-informed lens, combining insights from the social sciences, health studies, and public policy. The four-day residential Winter School offers an immersive, inquiry-based learning experience. Participants will examine the complex relationship between society and health, learn about diverse data sources for public health inquiry, and engage directly with communities to reflect on real-world contexts. 

The Winter School programme is structured around five pillars:

• Health and society interface: Social and cultural contexts of health; Questions around health inequalities
• Data sources and data analysis: Inquiry through quantitative and qualitative methods; mixed-methods integration; data analysis
• Field as learning site: Understanding community as public in public health
• Policy and practice implications: Evidence for policymaking, governance and community interventions
• Ethics and equity: Ethical sensitivity as a lens; Equity in public health

Objectives

The Winter School will help participants:

• Develop an interdisciplinary perspective to appreciate the dynamic relationship between society and health
• Understand how social, cultural, and policy contexts shape health outcomes
• Understand the role of evidence for public health practice and policy 
• Help participants to understand the relationship between policy and practice and
• Cultivate awareness about the ethical relationship between programme, policy and practice 

Who should join? 

This Winter School is ideal for students and young professionals from backgrounds such as sociology, economics, psychology, social work, management, science, medicine, nursing, public health, nutrition, or anyone passionate about understanding and improving the health of people. If you’ve ever wondered why some communities are healthier than others, how pandemics change societies, what makes health policies succeed or fail, or what it takes to work in public health, this programme is for you. 

Number of seats- 40 seats. Limited accommodation is available for participants in the internal and external hostels of the university. This will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. Travel cost will be borne by the participants. Selected participants will be informed by the organising committee. 

For any queries, please write to us at admissions@​apu.​edu.​in.