International Education and Research - Tufts University

Tufts Activities Around the World

The character of Tufts University is revealed in the work of every student who participates in any of our international programs, in any capacity.  Our students reflect our reputation, they personify our vision of budding global leaders, and they serve as our ambassadors when they take an active role in working or studying abroad. Tufts students are representatives of the university, which is steeped in a tradition of inquiring minds, compassionate spirits, and intellectual freedom.  

Tufts has partnerships with students, educators, researchers and institutions in India, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and many more.  Many of our initiatives are funded by or associated with prestigious institutions such as National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, National Institute of Epidemiology, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Center for Disease Control, and Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies. From teaching residents about nutrition in Guatemalan villages to conducting HIV research studies in Ghana to creating the preeminent online resource of all Giza pyramids research, Tufts students are engaged in important projects around the globe.

An Ecological Analysis of Cryptosporidium in Kenya
Led by principle investigator Jeffrey K. Griffiths, MD MPH&TM, the major goal of this research is to map the genotypes of /C. parvum/ isolates found in water, animal feces, and from cases of human diarrhea in a region of Kenya where HIV is prevalent and human-animal contact is frequent (Meru Town and Meru game park, Kenya). Collaborators include the Vice Chancellor of Kenya Methodist University and the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Archaeology Field School: Programme for Belize Archaeology Project
Each summer, lecturer Laurie Sullivan leads Tufts and University of Massachusetts students in an Archaeology Field School on the Programme for Belize Rio Bravo Conservation Lands in northwestern Belize. Students participate in first-hand field excavation and laboratory research in a tropical rainforest setting that was the site of Maya occupation from ca. 900 B.C. to 900 A.D. They investigate social and political organizations through the excavation of small site centers and large ceremonial centers.
Center for International Environmental and Resource Policy (CIERP)
Established in 1990 to support the growing demand for international environmental leaders, the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy's mission is to educate students to become policy and decision-makers who will keep environmental concerns at the forefront of the national agenda. Through the Center, students develop the skills necessary to formulate effective environmental strategies and solutions.
Cryptosporidium in HIV Positive Children in Ecuador
Led by principle investigator Jeffrey K. Griffiths, MD MPH&TM, the major goal of this research is to test the hypothesis that micronutrient interventions will decrease the incidence of diarrheal diseases, and specifically cryptosporidiosis, in HIV seropositive children in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Cuban Experience: Graduate Research Internships in Cuba
This internship is one of many opportunities at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The program enables graduate students across the schools at Tufts to pursue short-term research internships in Cuba in the fields of education, agriculture, health, the environment and cultural studies. Contact the Latino Center for more information.
Engineers Without Borders
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) promotes international awareness and responsibility by completing engineering projects designed to improve the standard of living in developing areas. EWB provides a forum and community for engineers and non-engineers alike to learn about developing countries, their cultures, and the development issues facing them. Students have worked on a model green building in Ecuador and water filtration in El Salvador in an effort to build a better world, one community at a time.
EXPOSURE
EXPOSURE is the Institute for Global Leadership's photojournalism, documentary studies and human rights program, dedicated to mentoring and developing young, knowledgeable photojournalists and documentary filmmakers. EXPOSURE's instructors include preeminent photographers from VII Photo Agency and other distinguished journalists who help run the program's hands-on workshops in Kosovo, Argentina and Philadelphia. These workshops are designed to examine the media's role in exposing the public to important social and international issues.
Fletcher Student Exchange Programs
The Fletcher School provides many opportunities for students to supplement their education with joint degree and exchange programs with some of the world's leading professional schools and graduate programs. Student can choose from six pre-approved programs in countries such as Switzerland or Germany, or contact a host institution of their choice and create their own program.
German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature
The department offers graduate and undergraduate courses in German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, as well as Hebrew and Arabic language classes. Courses in literature and programs in Judaic Studies, Asian Studies, and Eastern European Studies are also offered.
Ghana Gold: A Corporate Social Responsibility Study Tour
The Ghana Gold program takes 16 students to Ghana for 12 days each January. Students are introduced to Africa through examination of the gold mining industry and a series of interrelated issues, such as globalization and Africa's place in the world economy. Participants will be challenged to think about strategies that may improve the lives of people living in mining communities. Post-tour activities include a spring semester colloquium and plans for civic engagement research.
Global Health Framework Interdisciplinary MPH
This three-year program funded by the National Institutes of Health links all the Tufts graduate schools around the topic of Global Health. The program, which was first held in September of 2006, promotes interdisciplinary education and research at Tufts through a series of workshops. It is designed to integrate Tufts courses with those of institutions in East Africa, and soon in South Africa, India, and other sites, using the curriculum co-development model.
Global Health Interest Group
The premise behind this Tufts University School of Medicine student organization is that students who have a positive experience abroad early in their training are likely to be more sensitive to issues of international health and to engage in such work in the future. The Global Health Interest Group strives to provide a monthly international health series seminar, help students engage in international work after their first year, establish an international summer selective program for first-year students, and encourage students to spend a fourth year rotation abroad.
Global Health Internship at Father Muller Medical College
Father Muller Medical College and the Public Health & Family Medicine Department at TUSM offer Tufts medical and public health students two-month summer fellowships in Mangalore, India. Each summer since 2005, six Tufts students have participated in a rich didactic and clinical program taught by Father Muller faculty. In addition, students visit local hospitals, community health centers, homeopathy clinics and other medical facilities including uniquely Indian health settings such as ashrams and ayurvedic medicine centers.
Global Health Internship in Panama
This program was developed in collaboration with the School of Medicine at Panama University (Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Panama). Students are assigned to a community health center in the Panama West Health Area, where they have the opportunity to work as volunteers. Their days are divided between volunteer work and the study of Spanish, with an emphasis on medical terminology.
Global Health Internships in East Africa
This project, based on work conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, Associate Professor of Public Health and Family Medicine, places students at the Institute of Public Health at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and the School of Public Health at Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Students function as facilitators, helping faculty at the participating institutions learn how to use Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK).
Hickey-Peyton International Travel Fellowship
The Hickey-Peyton Travel Fellowship was established through an anonymous gift to the Tufts School of Medicine to support students interested in public health research/activities in international settings. It is hoped that, by taking advantage of this opportunity, students will gain a broader perspective on the roles of public health and medical care practice. Fellowships are awarded annually to first-year medical students.
Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research
The Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research is a five-year NIH-funded "Roadmap" program. Its goal is twofold: to develop and implement a health and water curriculum in the new Tufts University Water: Systems, Science, and Society interdisciplinary program, and to create novel interdisciplinary Internet-based curricula linking Tufts University with East African public health educators, researchers, and institutions.
International Institute for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors
The International Institute for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors is a Tufts-affiliated non-profit organization which strives to help landmine survivors regain their quality of life. The Institute was founded in April 1998 to contribute to the international effort to rehabilitate amputees, especially civilians, many of whom are children.
Joint & Exchange Programs with the Fletcher School
The Fletcher School allows students to supplement their education with joint degree and exchange programs with some of the world's leading professional schools and graduate programs.
Occupational Therapy International Programs
Through international collaboration, the Department of Occupational Therapy sponsors three unique study abroad programs in occupational therapy in Edinburgh, Scotland; Oxford, England; and Stockholm, Sweden. The Boston School of Occupational Therapy is affiliated with Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, Oxford Brookes University and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Sustainable Sweden Tour and Internships in Swedish Eco-Municipalities
Sweden is developing a growing number of "eco-municipalities" in which the principles of sustainable development are put into practice at the municipal level. For the past two years, Urban Environmental Policy and Planning students, with help from the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and Tufts Institute for the Environment, have arranged their own Sustainable Sweden tours and internships in a variety of eco-municipalities. Students then spend the second half of their internship in a U.S. municipality that has the potential to become an eco-municipality.
The Educational Resource Center - Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine
The Educational Resource Center (ERC) for children with disabilities and their families at Beit Hana College in Dnepropetrovsk is known as a "little Eliot-Pearson" in the Ukraine. Teams of Tufts professionals and students in the fields of child development, pediatrics, and occupational therapy collaborate with colleagues in the Ukraine for this pioneering teacher-training program. Pilot research for a dissertation funded by the U.S. State Department was conducted at the ERC in 2004. Contact Child Development for more information.
The Quito Integrated Environment and Policy (QUIEP) Program
This three-year National Institutes of Health-funded program, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, represents an international collaboration to encourage research in developing countries on topics that combine the issues of health, environment, and economic development. The goal is to improve understanding of the relationships between these topics and to help guide policy. The program encourages faculty and student exchanges at the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Fletcher.