Intersections of Punjabi Language and Health Research

Dr. Reetinder Kaur, a Punjabi language instructor at SFU, discusses the intersections between the Punjabi language and kidney transplant research in British Columbia (BC) during a radio talk with Connect FM’s host, Jaspreet Sidhu.

Dr. Kaur is currently pursuing a second PhD in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC. As part of her research, she is actively engaging with the South Asian community, specifically Punjabi-speaking individuals, in BC. Dr. Kaur explains how fluency in Punjabi has helped her effectively engage with this community in the context of research and knowledge mobilization. She also notes that the Punjabi community prefers to seek health information in their own language, and that effective health communication must involve fluent speakers of the language.

Dr. Kaur highlights the SFU Punjabi program and discusses how this program can help students develop their skills in the language to better serve the growing Punjabi community in BC. She also shares details about a recent photo exhibit, Surviving and Thriving, at Surrey Libraries, a collaboration made through the Department of World Languages and Literatures, which aims to share the stories of living kidney donors and kidney transplant recipients. Through her work in kidney transplant research, Dr. Kaur emphasizes the need for fluent and trained Punjabi-speaking health researchers in BC.