Above: Capstone Poster Showcase May 2025, Lehigh College of Health

Teaching & Mentoring

Dear Lehigh students and prospective students,

I teach undergraduate and graduate students via formal courses (see list below), and I enjoy mentoring students in research. My past student advisees and mentees included PhD students, Masters students, honors undergraduate students, and medical students.

My teaching philosophy with my student advisees at all levels is to help them grow intellectually as young scholars and launch them in whatever direction they choose.

My advising approach is individualized and student-centered: I work with students one-on-one to help them develop their own research projects that have a strong scholarly and academic merit, but are also intellectually stimulating and interesting to my students. I also work with students to help them publish their research results and present their work at conferences.

In the fall 2025, I will be teaching a new course:

POPH 316: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Tue & Thur 12:10 – 1:25 pm) → Class is full as of May 2025. Please look for it next year.

This course explores sexual reproductive health issues through the lens of reproductive justice, human rights, and gender equity. Using case studies from around the world, students analyze such topics as unmet family planning needs, contraception, abortion politics and access to care, cross-border reproductive travel, sexually transmitted infections and HIV prevention and care, evidence around inclusive vs. abstinence-based sexual education, adolescent health, LGBTQAI+ health, refugees and populations in transit, declining birth rates, pronatalist policies, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, surrogacy, and egg freezing.

Other courses at Lehigh University:

POPH 301 | Population Health Capstone Proposal
POPH 305 | Honors Population Health Capstone Proposal
CGH 301 | Community and Global Health Field Experience I
CGH 303 | Honors Community and Global Health Field Experience I

Above: Undergraduate student Caleb Hernandez presenting his research at the 2019 Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

Former students’ peer-reviewed publications, and recognition:

Karli M. Reeves and Joanna Mishtal. 2022. “Situating Parents’ Circumcision Decision-Making within Health Research, Knowledge, and Experience” Social Science & Medicine: Qualitative Research in Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100132 

Sarah Davenport and Joanna Mishtal. 2019. “Whose Sustainability? An Analysis of a Community Farming Program’s Food Justice and Environmental Sustainability Agenda,” Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment 41(1):56-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12227 

Lillian Milanés and Joanna Mishtal. 2018. “Too Little, Too Late? The Challenges in Expanding Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare for Men.” Anthropology in Action: Journal for Applied Anthropology in Policy & Practice 25(2):13-23. https://doi.org/10.3167/aia.2018.250203  

Deven Gray and Joanna Mishtal. 2018. “Managing an Epidemic: Zika Interventions and Community Responses in Belize.” Global Public Health Journal 14(1):9-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2018.1471146  

Russell Manzano, Joanna Mishtal, and Shana Harris. 2018. “The Effect of Second Reception Center Practices on Refugee Experiences in Sicily.” Human Organization 77(2): 79-89. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259-77.2.79  

Ashley Franklin, Joanna Mishtal, Teresa Johnson, and Judith Simms-Cendan. “Rowers’ Behaviors, Attitudes, and Safety Concerns Related to Exercise, Training, and Competition during Pregnancy.” 2017. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science 9(8):e1534, pp. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1534  

Adam Kersch, and Joanna Mishtal. 2016. “Asylum in Crisis: Migrant Policy, Entrapment, and the Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Siracusa, Italy.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 35(4): 97-121. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdw017  

Ashley Franklin, Joanna Mishtal, Teresa Johnson, Judith Simms-Cendan. 2015. “Rowers’ behaviors and perceptions about competitive exercise during pregnancy.” Obstetrics & Gynecology. 125:48S. (published abstract) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/01.AOG.0000463095.50136.0b 

Jacqueline Sivén, and Joanna Mishtal. 2012. “Yoga as Entrée to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and Medically Pluralistic Practices.” Human Organization 71(4):348-357. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.71.4.f262087603m24816   

Recognition

Student research recognition: