The Joan Andrea Kleinman Travel and Language Grant is made in memory of Joan A. Kleinman, a scholar of Chinese language and literature and co-researcher with Dr. Arthur Kleinman of projects in medical anthropology. Joan Andrea Kleinman was committed to language as the basis for cultural and international studies and developed Chinese fluency only after her initial graduate studies in French. The goal of this grant is to promote language acquisition for use in the service of global health research. The language acquisition aspect of the summer research project may involve formal coursework or informal tutoring.
One or two annual awards are made to support summer field research and language learning outside of the United States in East Asia: China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. This grant supports research on the broadest aspects of health, illness and social suffering. Eana Meng was the 2018 award recipient of the Joan Andrea Kleinman Travel and Language Grant at its launch. Meng’s project was titled “The Past, Present, Future of Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Look into Chronic Suffering in China.” She is currently a student at Harvard Medical School. Meng’s recent statement about her project and experience is below.
Joan and Arthur Kleinman have fundamentally made possible my pursuit of medicine, history, and a moral life. Though I never knew Joan in physical reality, I consider her one of my intellectual and ethical guides in my exploration of Chinese medicine, in specific, and my dedication to scholarship and practice that uplifts the voices of those most overlooked, in general.
The fellowship funded my summer at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2018, where I finally began my deep dive into the learning about the philosophies and practices of Chinese medicine. I say “finally” because I grew up proximate to the medicine — my grandmother was a Chinese medicine practitioner, but she passed when I was five. Spending the bulk of my childhood in Boston, an epicenter of biomedicine, I never truly took seriously the specifics of the stories about my grandmother’s medicine; I was, however, profoundly moved by her commitment to healing. I knew that I wanted to become a healer like her — but with Western medicine, which is what I then considered a better and modern medicine.
It wasn’t until facing chronic health conditions of my own and within my inner circle that I confronted the realities and limitations of biomedicine. What else could I do, for myself and my loved ones? Recalling my grandmother’s healing abilities, I decided to start looking into the specifics of her practice. This led me to Shanghai, where my daily exposure to Chinese medicine and the people of it irrevocably changed my life’s trajectory. Seeing and experiencing acupuncture treatments, becoming aware of the robustness and intricacies of herbal concoctions, and most of all, learning how medicine was part and parcel of a broader life orientation, I knew my life’s purpose was to become a bridge between these worlds. To create connections within the liminal space of past and present, East and West, community and individual. To be my grandmother’s granddaughter.
I came away from the summer not just with lofty aspirations, however, but also with a specific research interest: whether acupuncture was being used in the United States in the context of the opioid epidemic. As I learned repeatedly from patients about the efficacy of acupuncture for their chronic pain in Shanghai, I was also beginning to hear more about an opioid epidemic in the United States as the country finally began grappling with the scale of its devastation. I wondered, were patients or healthcare providers turning to non-pharmacologic interventions?
In answering this question, I found myself in an opioid recovery center in Manchester, NH, where I witnessed ten people sitting in a circle with needles in their ears. There I learned about the 1970s history of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association ear acupuncture protocol that was developed by those in the Black revolutionary movement in the South Bronx. I then learned about Dr. Tolbert Small, the physician for the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Oakland, CA, and how he went to China in 1972 on a BPP delegation. He learned about acupuncture on the trip, and came home to incorporate the practice into his medical toolkit. He later opened up a private practice where he saw patients using both Western medicine and acupuncture.
Taking inspiration from the Kleinmans, I am dedicated to a moral, applied, and service-oriented scholarship. I am currently in the MD-PhD program in History of Science back at my alma mater; I am committed to preserving the important and instructive histories of Small and the NADA protocol. I am working towards increasing access to acupuncture in the United States, and founded the Small Steps Project where integrative medicine practitioners provide services to historically marginalized communities in Boston for free. I am also working towards increasing social medicine education to first years at Harvard Medical School, through co-founding the Community Accompaniment Program.
There is not a single day I don’t wake up profoundly grateful for the life I lead — I am able to chase my highest dreams because of the support of mentors and the resources available to me. This soul-filling journey -- of becoming a bridge between the East and the West, the past and the present, and academia and applied practice -- would not have been possible if not for Arthur and Joan.
Special thanks to Eana for her insightful statement.
The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School invites MD and MD-PhD students of Harvard Medical School and students of Harvard College to apply for this year’s Joan Andrea Kleinman Travel and Language Grant. The maximum award will be $7,500. This year's application deadline has been extended to March 15, 2023. Apply via CARAT at https://carat.fas.harvard.edu/. Search for Joan Andrea Kleinman Travel and Language Grant.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please note that all support related to international travel is contingent upon Harvard University guidelines and safety protocols. Please see the following sites for the most up-to-date guidance: Harvard Travel Guidance and Harvard GSS COVID-19 travel advice.
Please contact Kathryn Vandever with any questions at kathryn_vandever@fas.harvard.edu.