Mountains Beyond Mountains Resources

In Mountains Beyond Mountains, Paul Farmer says "To understand Russia, to understand Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Boston, identity politics, Sri Lanka, and Life Savers, you have to be on top of this hill."  Below are links to text, audio and video resources that will help you "stand on a hill" and learn more about the key topics covered in Tracy Kidder's award-winning book. 

We've set up a blog to get our discussion going.  Join us in adding your thoughts and comments at http://iwureads.blogspot.com.  Anyone is welcome to post their responses to the book - new and returning students, parents, faculty and staff.  If you'd like to be able to create a post in addition to commenting on others' posts, please email Stephanie Davis-Kahl.  You can also contact Stephanie with suggested books or websites for this site.

We're looking forward to meeting all of you and hearing your thoughts on the book!

Watch ~ Listen ~ Read ~ Research ~ Act

Watch

• "Cambridge Reads with Dr. Paul Farmer & Tracy Kidder" from Cambridge (MA) Community Television
• "Public Health and Social Justice: an interview with Paul Famer, MD, PhD" a Public Health Video Podcast from Johns Hopkins University
• "Pursuing Global Health," an Inner Compass program from Calvin College in which Paul Farmer discusses the Partners in Health organization
• Paul Farmer on Stanford Spotlight discussing how undergraduates can change the world
• HIV/AIDS and Globalization: Paul Farmer at Xavier University, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Listen

• All Things Considered/NPR Interview with Tracy Kidder (October 20, 2003)
• Fresh Air/NPR Interview with Paul Farmer (September 25, 2003)
• Kaiser Family Foundation "From the Journals" Interview with Paul Farmer about his article "Structual Violence and Clinical Medicine" (mp3)
• "Pathologies of Power: Rethinking Health and Human Rights in the Global Era" Lecture at Calvin College, January 10, 2005
• "Combating Global Poverty," WGBH Forum Network, February 6, 2005
• Two interviews with the authors of The Better World Handbook

Read

On the Web:

• About Tracy Kidder
• About Farmer, Paul
• Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine, PLos Medicine, 2006
  "Structural violence, a term coined by Johan Galtung and by liberation theologians during the 1960s, describes social structures—economic, political, legal, religious, and cultural—that stop individuals, groups, and societies from reaching their full potential." 
• Interview with Tracy Kidder
• Mapping Global Mountains Beyond Local Mountains:  Globalization and Paul Farmer’s Reframing of Care (pdf; by Professor Matthew Sparke, University of Washington)
• Mountains Beyond Mountains Glossary
• Information on Haiti: Pan American Health Organization, World Factbook entry,

Materials at the Ames Library:

• Paul Farmer:
  • Pathologies of power : health, human rights, and the new war on the poor
    HM821.F37 2005
  • The Uses of Haiti
    F1928.2.F37 1994
  • AIDS & Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
    RA644 .A25 F37 2006
  • Infections and Inequalities
    RA418.5 .P6 F37 1999
  • More Paul Farmer books are on order and will be added to the list as they arrive...
• Tracy Kidder
  • Among Schoolchildren
    LB1776 .K48 1990
  • Home town
    F74.N86 K53 1999
  • House
    TH4811 .K48 1999
  • My detachment : a memoir
    DS559.5 .K5 2005
  • Old friends
    HQ1064.U5 K475 1993
  • The soul of a new machine
    TK7885.4 .K53
• Global Health Issues
  • Combating AIDS in the developing world
    Josh Ruxin, Agnes Binagwaho, Paul A. Wilson
    RA643.86.D44 C66 2005
  • Critical issues in global health
    C. Everett Koop, Clarence E. Pearson, M. Roy Schwarz, editors
    RA441 .C75 2002
  • International public health : diseases, programs, systems, and policies
    edited by Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, Anne J. Mills
    RA441 .I578 2006
  • Race against time : searching for hope in AIDS-ravaged Africa
    Stephen Lewis
    HN773.5 .L49 2006
  • Their brothers’ keepers: orphaned by AIDS (film)
    DVD. HV1351.5 .T43 2005
  • AIDS in Africa : how the poor are dying
    Nana K. Poku
    RA643.86.A35 P636 2005
  • The forgotten plague : how the battle against tuberculosis was won--and lost
    Frank Ryan
    RC310 .R91993
  • Tuberculosis in America: the people’s plague (film)
    VID. RC311 .T83 1995

Research

Effective Keywords to find articles, books or credible websites on the topics discussed in Mountains beyond Mountains include:

• Public health
• Human rights
• Social justice
• Structural violence
• Poverty
• Global Health
• Haiti - Social conditions
• Africa - Social conditions
• Tuberculosis - history
• AIDS (disease)

The Ames Library Catalog/I-Share is the place to find books on the above topics.  To locate articles, try the following databases after configuring your browser:

• General Databases:
  • Academic Search Premier (scholarly articles)
  • Lexis-Nexis (newspaper and magazine articles)
  • JSTOR (scholarly articles - includes journals specific to African Studies)
    

• Health Databases:

  • PubMed (scholarly articles, free access)

  • HealthSource (scholarly articles)
    

• Databases on Related Topics:

  • EconLit

  • PAIS International

  • Sociological Abstracts

Act

• FACE AIDS
  ...a student campaign to raise money for AIDS action
• Volunteer and Internship Opportunities with Partners in Health
• Cross-Cultural Solutions
• United Planet
•  The Better World Handbook: Small Changes that Make a Big Difference
  "...the definitive guide for the average person wanting to make a positive difference in the world. Our book is specifically designed for well-intentioned people who may be too busy to be actively involved in social change organizations."
  • Top Ten Actions: simple steps we can all take to create a better world
  • Top Ten Companies: Best, Worst, Small But Beautiful
  • Top Ten Essential Changes: what to change to make the most impact on people and the planet

Created by Stephanie Davis-Kahl for the 2007 IWU Summer Reading Program
July 19, 2007
Last updated July 5, 2007