Students post, tweet, and blog about their experiences overseas, and these narratives contribute to the growing popularity of study abroad. We must reinvent our pedagogy to adapt to this changing world and examine the stories that inspire student travel. How might they collide with the expectation of health equity and sustainable service? How can we promote self-reflection and cultural humility? An interdisciplinary panel – representing film studies, anthropology, and public health – will place the current debate in the context of postcolonial narratives, describe the potential for self-reflection, and offer a sample technique for using digital storytelling in trip preparation and in-class learning.

1. The Imagery of
Humanitarianism
An overview

2. Western Images of Humanitarians and
Volunteers:
1) Type of media
2) How identities of donor and beneficiary (or ‘Other’) are constructed
3) How their relationship is imagined
4) What image suggests about distance/proximity between public
and the ‘spectacle’ of need or suffering

3. Colonialism (18th-19th c.)
o Media: Photography, Post Cards, Museums, Colonial Exhibitions
Identity: Donor: Paternalistic, ‘Civilized’
Beneficiary: Childlike, ‘Savage’
o Relationship: unequal, exploitative
o Distance: emphasized between ‘uncivilized’ Other and viewing
public

4. French Congo (Date Unknown)

5. Belgian Congo (1910)

6. Christian Missionaries (19th-early 20th c.)
Media: photos; newspapers (faith-based or otherwise); museums;
documentary films (later)
Relationship: Charity; inequality assumed between donor/beneficiary;
‘mission to civilize’ ‘responsibility to civilize’

7. American Missionary (India, 1873)
Donor:
Paternalistic, but
humanitarian
Beneficiary:
Child-like,‘Savage’
but in need
charitable;

8. German Christian Mission School (South West Africa,
1910)

9. Twentieth Century:
Humanitarian Images
Media: Photography, Doc. Films, Television
Identity: Donor: Charitable, generous,
Beneficiary: Suffering, in need
Relationship: of help and protection
Distance of suffering increased through media
(TV)

10. 20th c. Imagery of Humanitarianism (Post-Colonies; Cold War)
New role of International Development
Media: should represent the ‘Truth’ of Suffering
Realism (‘seeing is believing’) (Vietnam War)
Focus on beneficiary (suffering)
Goal: to make suffering more urgent and immediate
to gain donor support, political support

11. Child Sponsoring: ex. Christian Children’s Fund (f. 1938-
China) (TV ads: ‘70s)

12. “Starving Children of Biafran War”
(Life Magazine, 1968)

13. The Aughts
Media: Photography, Doc. Film; Video; Internet
Identities: Donor: individual humanitarian, activist. Beneficiary:
in need but dignified; ‘success stories’
Relationship: individual-to-individual (equal?)
Proximity of those need ever-increased (internet)

14. Web 2.0 “Revolution” and Humanitarian imagery
interactive; user-produced content
increased reach of images/content
user identity: importance of public; online ‘self and the ‘profile’
(Facebook, Blogs)
Focus on the donor
Global (often celebrity) activist and consumer-based movements (Kony
2012, Half the Sky)

15. Donor/Beneficiary Relationships

16. Kony 2012: the consumer/activist

17. “Half the Sky”
(Celebrity Humanitarians model activism)

18. Donor/Beneficiary Identities: Hands Up For Haiti

19. Shift to Donor as Focus

20. Donor identity?

21. What do you think?

22. Images disseminated by Service Abroad students on Social Media
How do older versions of donor/beneficiary identities and relationships
persist?
How do new models (often internet based) of humanitarianism and
volunteerism exert an influence?
How does the increased proximity of those in need (enabled by the
internet) affect the relationship between donor and beneficiary?

23. “A once in a lifetime opportunity
to do good in the world”
What’s “the story”
with health-related
study abroad—
and why does it
matter?

24. In three semesters of public/community
health study abroad in Ghana, I noticed:
• Students were oriented
more toward “serving”
than “learning”.
• Students bumped up
against the limits of
health education
• They took—and
posted--a LOT of
pictures

25. “It was the photographs posted by other
students that inspired me to go on my first
overseas medical mission. When classmates
uploaded the experience of themselves wearing
scrubs beside adorable children in developing
countries, I believed I was missing out on a
pivotal pre-med experience.”
#InstagrammingAfrica: The Narcissism of Global Voluntourism, Lauren
Kascak, Sayantani DasGupta, Sociological Images 2014

26. And from The Onion …

27. Some obvious ethical
questions:
• Confidentiality and Informed consent?
o Protected Health Information on Social
Networking Sites: Ethical and Legal
Considerations. By: Thompson,, Black, Duff,
Black, Paradise, Saliba,Dawson Journal of
Medical Internet Research, 14388871, Jan-
Mar2011, Vol. 13, Issue 1
• And more…Whose story is it?

28. Silvia Taulés, reporting in the New York Times, July 12,
2015

29. “There were surgeries in the operating room almost daily,
and I would often assist with those. I will never forget
“scrubbing in” on my first C-section – an experience I
wouldn’t have again until my fourth year of medical school!”
http://www.projects-abroad.co.uk/why-projects-abroad/volunteer-stories/?content=medicine-and-
healthcare/medicine/ghana/genevieve-digby/

30. Student social media use—a
risk, but also an opportunity
for growth and reflection.
Photo voice: “Often used in community research
and to create dialogue among community
members; the application of photovoice in this
article turns the focus inward to ask students to
explore their own thoughts and values.”
Cray Mulder & Aubrey Dull (2014) Facilitating Self-Reflection: The Integration
of Photovoice in Graduate Social Work Education, Social Work Education: The
International Journal.

31. Writing a caption: SHOW
What do you See
here?
What is really
Happening here?
How does this
relate to Our lives?
Why does this exist?
To build our cabin in the Ozarks, each of the members of
the five owning families participated. Here, Ginny
Muller measures deck boards.

32. Step 1:
Concrete or abstract?
Avoid generic images….
Pick a photo that reflects one of the best things
about your life:
Caption it:
Pick a photo that reflects one of the worst things
about your life:
Caption it:

33. Step 2
Imagine you are someone from a different cultural
group, age, race or place. Someone who doesn’t
know you and your life.
Re-Caption photo 1
Re-Caption photo 2

34. Reflection
• Did the captions
change? In what
way?
• What was the
outsider missing?
• How might your
perception of
SHOW—
particularly the
Why or meaning
be different?
• Write One or Two
paragraphs about
this exercise:
o What did you
learn?
o How did it feel?
o How might this
apply to a study
abroad
experience?

35. • Autonomy
The right to participate or decline to
participate
• Do No Harm
Am I creating and using photos in a manner
that will do no harm to persons appearing in
photos?
• Fidelity
Am I using photos in a context that fairly
represents the real situation in this photo?
• Justice
Am I photographing people with the same
respect I would show to neighbors and
strangers in my home community?

36. Using captioning to
enhance student
learning
Lessons from Health Sciences study abroad

37. Pre-departure
• “Things are not always as they appear”
o Context
o Empathy
• How will this direct photo taking or photo sharing?
o Respect
o Multiple interpretations
o Understand cultural differences

38. During the trip
• Directions: Each student selects a picture that they have already
taken. Caption it. Then re-caption it from the point of view of a
resident of the local city.
• Outcomes:
o What is the subject of the picture?
• Centrality of the students as subjects vs. the sites they were taking pictures of.
o Ordinary vs extraordinary conditions and behaviors

39. After the trip
• Directions: Students asked to identify and caption photos that
represented the best things, the worst thing, and a time of learning.
• Outcomes:
o Best thing: students themselves, their host families, or local staff
o Worst thing: material discomfort (food, pollution, toilets)
o Learning: internship site, homestay family

40. Example of a “Best
thing” photo

41. Example of a “Worst
thing” photo

42. Example of a
“Learning” photo

43. Concluding thoughts
• Benefits to ethical behavior
• Potential benefits to development of cross-cultural competency and
empathy
• Work to develop a curriculum that promotes student engagement
with cross-cultural issues in health care

44. Study Abroad & Photos

68. Administrative role
• Pre-departure
• During
• Return to campus
• Photo contest, 20/20, returnee events…
• Alumni

69. Administrative responsibility
• Marketing
• Expectations
• Reflection and learning vs. doing and saving
• What is our own narrative?

74. Transforming awareness

75. Ethical Guidelines
1. Be respectful and accurate when representing the host country.
2. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups.
3. Have you thought about the ways in which others who see your
photo will interpret it and is there any reason anyone, including
subjects in the photo might be offended by it?
4. Does this photo represent you the photographer as a responsible
traveler and a respectful student of the University of Missouri?

76. ?