Curriculum - Undergrad
Global Health Minor
Core Courses (2 course units):
NURS3150 / 5150 |
This course is intended for students interested in U.S/Global Healthcare. It includes lectures, discussions, readings, and written assignments focused on various social, cultural, and economic factors that impact the health and illness perceptions and behaviors of various ethnic and minority groups. In particular, it focuses on how culture affects health and disease, and how health and disease affect culture.This course takes a critical approach to knowledge development by scrutinizing values, theories, assumptions, and practices cross culturally. It relies upon a range of interdisciplinary approaches to analyze how disease is diagnosed, treated, and experienced differently in various cultural contexts. At the same time, students will have the opportunity to examine and critique cultural assumptions and theories, the shifting nature of cultures, the situational use of cultural traditions, and the ethnocentrism of contemporary Western health care. Special attention is given to the influence of race, class, gender, religious, and spiritual ideas about health and illness. |
And one of the following:
NURS3270 / 5270 |
This interdisciplinary course covers fundamental concepts of global and population health. Epidemiology and methodology, historical and contemporary contexts, physical (water, air, climate change, and food/nutrition) and social (health inequities, sex/reproduction, injury/violence) determinants of health, and interventions for health improvement are addressed. Health problems such as infectious and chronic diseases cannot be understood apart from history, economics, environment, and inequalities – they are not simply medical issues. Global Health refers not only to the health problems of “others” living in far corners of the world (low- and middle-income countries), but also to our own health problems as citizens of a very rich, but very unequal and multicultural nation. The aim of the course is to help students become more informed and active global citizens. Learning methods include faculty presentations, student presentations, and small group discussions. Although this course has a health focus, it is aimed at all students interested in global issues. |
Experiential Requirement (1 course unit):
To complete the global health minor, students must also take an experiential course. Options are listed below and include NURS5350s (both with travel and virtual), NURS5450s, NURS2980s (global independent study), and NURS3430s (global seminars). Students also have the option of a Nursing Semester Abroad in the UK or Australia, or a semester or short-term study abroad program through Penn Abroad. Students who would like to propose another way of completing the experiential requirement should inquire with Nancy Biller, Assistant Dean for Global Health Affairs, nbiller@nursing.upenn.edu.
NURS2980 |
TBD |
NURS2990 |
An opportunity to develop and implement an individual plan of study under faculty guidance. |
NURS3430 |
This seminar provides interdisciplinary perspectives on health and illness in Chile, health system organization and financing, the health workforce, national health priorities, strategies, and recent reforms. Penn faculty in nursing, sociology, demography, economics, and Wharton share their expertise. The winter break field experience, which is summertime in Chile, focuses on health services delivery in metropolitan Santiago, including visits to a public and a private hospital, a primary care center, and a geriatric institute. Chile’s unique political and economic history provides the context for its current healthcare system and challenges. Therefore, we also visit cultural sites, notably the homes of the Nobel poet Pablo Neruda, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, the bustling port city and bay of Valparaiso, and historic and government sites in the city of Santiago. |
NURS3430 |
This course will combine a broad overview on current health, culture, and development topics in Ghana with the experience, treatment, and impact of sickle cell anemia. The course will cover basic principles of Ghanaian culture as it relates to health and development. Students will gain knowledge of and observational experiences in issues of West African health care and development, brief introductions to the literature on health, critical thinking on complex and relevant social problems, fieldwork methods, and cross-cultural communication. Travel to Ghana will be used to help students gain a global perspective on health and development topics that impact Africans across the diaspora. Site visits will include a sickle cell clinic, a K-12 school, local start-ups, and Ghanaian heritage sites. |
NURS3430 |
This class introduces students to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a form of complementary and alternative medicine. The students will learn about TCM theory, common therapies, and treatments, as well as the safety, regulation, and efficacy of this practice. Classwork will be complemented by a 1-2 week trip to China to visit hospitals affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. There, students will attend lectures/seminars, clinical observations, and hands-on experiences, gaining a global perspective and understanding of the implications of TCM. |
NURS3430 / 5430 |
This course introduces students to a broad overview on current environmental health issues that contribute to significant global morbidity and mortality due to increased urbanization and growth in the economy. We will cover basic principles of environmental epidemiology, toxicology, health effects of environmental exposures, risk assessment, as well as environmental policy and ethics. The importance of environmental exposures on health outcomes will be emphasized. The class will have two portions. The first part of the class will be taught through lectures, case studies, discussions on campus and a local field trip / relevant conference in the Philadelphia area. Guest lecturers include experts in the field. The second part of the course will involve a field trip to China during the early summer to help students gain a global perspective on environmental health concerns through seminars, site visits, and field/laboratory work. Students will also have the opportunity to engage with Chinese environmental health scientists, students, and the local community. |
NURS3820 |
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community’s strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities. |
NURS5350 |
This course offers students an opportunity to: 1) expand their knowledge base in health care systems; 2) develop intercultural competency skills and 3) shape a conceptual framework for improving the quality of health care for the individual, the family, the community and society at large. Emphasizes the relational, contextual nature of health care and the inseparability of the notions of the health of individuals and the health of family, society, and culture. Includes field experience. |
NURS5450 |
This clinical elective will provide an intensive historical, sociopolitical, and cultural perspective of health and health care delivery in the Americas with a special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. Classroom, direct clinical care and field experiences are designed to provide students with a broad view of the history and culture system of the country of focus. The delivery of health care to women and children will be explored from a sociopolitical, cultural and historical context. Service learning experiences are an integral component of this course. The course includes 5 seminars on campus and 10-14 days on site in the country of focus. The country of focus may vary each semester. |
Electives Requirement (3 course units):
A listing of Global Health Minor electives from which to choose is provided below. If you would like to propose other courses to add to this list, contact Nancy Biller. Please note, a single foreign language course at a level beyond the basic graduation requirement may be taken as a Global Health Minor elective. Also, after the experiential core course requirement is met, a second experiential course can be taken as an elective, if desired.
AFRC 1550 |
Afro-Latino in the U.S. |
AFRC 2250 |
The aim of the course is to provide an overall perspective on African languages and linguistics. No background in linguistics is necessary. Students will be introduced to theoretical linguistics-its concepts, theories, ways of argumentation, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. The focus will be on the languages and linguistics of Africa to provide you with the knowledge and skills required to handle the language and language-related issues typical of African conditions. We will cover topics related to formal linguistics (phonology/phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics), aspects of pragmatics as well as the general socio-linguistic character of African countries. We will also cover language in context, language and culture, borrowing, multilingualism, and cross-cultural communication in Africa. |
ANTH 0020 |
An introduction to the study of culture and human institutions, how they change, and their role in both literate and nonliterate societies. |
ANTH 0040 |
An introduction to the diversity of cultures in the world. This course is divided into two parts. The first briefly examines different models of understanding human diversity: ethnicities, religions, languages, political forms, economic structures, cultures, and “civilizations”. Students will learn to think about the world as an interconnected whole, and know the significance of culture on a global scale. The second part is an introduction to area studies, in which we undertake a survey of the different regions of the world. We conduct the survey paying attention to the different aspects of human diversities, which we examine in the first part of this course. Students will acquire a greater appreciation and understanding of cultural differences in the more comprehensive social context. |
ANTH 0120 |
This course describes and analyses the current state of globalization and sets it in historical perspective. It applies the concepts and methods of anthropology, history, political economy and sociology to the analysis and interpretation of what is actually happening in the course of the semester that relates to the progress of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about what is happening but about the growing awareness of it and the consequences of the increasing awareness. In answering these questions we distinguish between active campaigns to cover the world (e.g. Christian and Muslim proselytism, free-trade agreements, democratization) and the unplanned diffusion of new ways of organizing trade, capital flows, tourism and remote interaction via the Internet. The body of the course deals with particular dimensions of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of each. The overall approach is historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught collaboratively by an anthropologist, an historian, and a sociologist, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary approaches. It seeks to develop a general social-science-based theoretical understanding of the various historical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social and cultural. |
ANTH 0630 |
Sugar and Spices. Tea and Coffee. Opium and Cocaine. Hop aboard the Indian Ocean dhows, Chinese junks, Dutch schooners, and British and American clipper ships that made possible the rise of global capitalism, new colonial relationships, and the intensified forms of cultural change. How have the desires to possess and consume particular commodities shaped cultures and the course of modern history? This class introduces students to the cultural history of the modern world through an interdisciplinary analysis of connections between East and West, South and North. Following the circulation of commodities and the development of modern capitalism, the course examines the impact of global exchange on interactions and relationships between regions, nations, cultures, and peoples and the influences on cultural practices and meanings. The role of slavery and labor migrations, colonial and imperial relations, and struggles for economic and political independence are also considered. Recitation will not meet every week. Lecture sessions will be shortened those weeks that recitations are held. |
ANTH 1238 |
Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology – culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body – and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. |
ANTH 2340 |
This seminar analyzes the dynamics of the burgeoning international pharmaceutical trade and the global inequalities that emerge from and are reinforced by market-driven medicine. Questions about who will be treated and who will not filter through every phase of pharmaceutical production—from preclinical research to human testing, marketing, distribution, prescription, and consumption. The seminar draws on anthropological case studies to illuminate the roles of corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in relation to global pharmaceuticals. As we analyze each case and gain familiarity with ethnographic methods, we will ask how individual and group health is shaped by new medical technologies and their evolving regulatory regimes and markets. The course familiarizes students with critical debates on globalization and with local responses to globalizing processes; and it contributes to ethical and political debates on the development and access to new medical technologies. |
ANTH 2590 |
This course will explore the significance as it relates to food behaviors and nutritional status in contemporary human populations. The topics covered will be examined from a biocultural perspective and include 1) definition and functions of nutrients and how different cultures perceive nutrients, 2) basic principles of human growth and development, 3) methods to assess dietary intake, 4) food taboos, 5) feeding practices of infants and children, 6) food marketing, 7)causes and consequences of under and overnutrition and 8) food insecurity and hunger. |
ANTH 2730 |
In some parts of the world spending on pharmaceuticals is astronomical. In others, people struggle for survival amid new and reemerging epidemics and have little or no access to basic or life-saving therapies. Treatments for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poor remain under-researched and global health disparities are increasing. This interdisciplinary seminar integrates perspectives from the social sciences and the biomedical sciences to explore 1) the development and global flows of medical technologies; 2) how the health of individuals and groups is affected by medical technologies, public policy, and the forces of globalization as each of these impacts local worlds. This course is a Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The seminar is structured to allow us to examine specific case material from around the world (Haiti, South Africa, Brazil, Russia, China, India, for example), and to address the ways in which social, political-economic, and technological factors – which are increasingly global in nature – influence basic biological mechanisms and disease outcomes and distribution. As we analyze each case and gain familiarity with ethnographic methods, we will ask how more effective interventions can be formulated. The course draws from historical and ethnographic accounts, medical journals, ethical analyses, and films, and familiarizes students with critical debates on globalization and with local responses to globalizing processes. |
ANTH 2940 |
This course examines the futures of urbanization in most of the world. With cities in “developing” countries set to absorb 95% of urban population growth in the next generation, the course explores the plans, spaces and social experiences of this dramatic urban century. How do proliferating urban populations sustain themselves in the cities of Latin America, Africa and Asia? What kinds of social and political claims do these populations make more just and sustainable cities? The course investigates the ongoing experiences in urban planning, infrastructure development and environmental governance in cities of the Global South. In so doing, it imagines new forms of citizenship, development and sustainability that are currently unfolding in these cities of the future. |
EALC 0040 |
History & Tradition Sector. All classes. Staff. Survey of the civilization of Japan from prehistoric times to the present. |
EALC 0730 |
From an empire to a republic, from a communism to socialist-style capitalism, few countries have ever witnessed so much change in a hundred year period as China during the twentieth century. How are we to make sense out of this seeming chaos? This course will offer an overview of the upheavals that China has experienced from the late Qing to the Post-Mao era, interspersed that China has experienced from the late Qing to the Post-Mao era, interspersed with personal perspectives revealed in primary source readings such as memoirs, novels, and oral accounts. We will start with an analysis of the painful transition from the last empire, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to a modern nation state, followed by exploration of a century-long tale of incessant reform and revolution. The survey will focus on three main themes: 1) the repositioning of China in the new East Asian and world orders; 2) the emergence of a modern Chinese state and nationalistic identity shaped and reshaped by a series of cultural crises; and finally 3) the development and transformation of Chinese modernity. Major historical developments include: the Opium War and drug trade in the age of imperialism, reform and revolution, the Nationalist regime, Mao’s China, the Cultural Revolution, and the ongoing efforts of post-Mao China to move beyond Communism. We will conclude with a critical review of the concept of “Greater China” that takes into account Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora in order to attain a more comprehensive understanding of modern China, however defined, at the end of the last century. |
EALC 0750 |
This course will survey the dramatic story of transformation from feudal to modern Japan. It has two principal aims: 1) to provide a general narrative of events from 1600 to the present. 2) to introduce students to the most powerful tool of historical analysis: an awareness of the importance of interpretation. You will be asked not only to identify important people and events. You will be called upon, more particularly, to identify and contemplate different perspectives on the past and present. |
EALC 3425 |
This course examines gender in Chinese religious culture from ancient to contemporary times. We will explore topics including the Buddhist accommodation of Chinese family system, Chinese transformation of the bodhisattva Guanyin, female deities in Daoist and popular religious pantheons, writings about religious women, female ghosts and fox spirits in literary imagination and folk tales, and the significance of yin force in Chinese medicine and Daoist alchemy. Through the case of China, we will look at how gender plays critical and constitutive roles in religious traditions, and how religion can be used both to reinforce and to challenge gender norms. |
HCMG 2040 |
This course examines the structure of health care systems in different countries, focusing on financing, reimbursement, delivery systems and adoption of new technologies. We study the relative roles of private sector and public sector insurance and providers, and the effect of system design on cost, quality, efficiency and equity of medical services. Some issues we address are normative: Which systems and which public/private sector mixes are better at achieving efficiency and equity? Other issues are positive: How do these different systems deal with tough choices, such as decisions about new technologies? Our main focus is on the systems in four large, prototypical OECD countries–Germany, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom–and then look at other countries with interesting systems- including Italy, Chile, Singapore, Brazil, China and India. We draw lessons for the U.S. from foreign experience and vice versa. |
HIST 0350 |
Survey of major themes, events, and personalities in African history from the early nineteenth century through the 1960s. Topics include abolition of the slave trade, European imperialism, impact of colonial rule, African resistance, religious and cultural movements, rise of naturalism and pan-Africanism, issues of ethnicity and “tribalism” in modern Africa. |
HIST 0450 |
Surveys Latin American and Caribbean history from the Tupac Amaru Revolt to the present. We will examine the legacy of Spanish colonialism and slavery, movements for national and cultural independence, twentieth-century radicalism, and the politics of race in contemporary Latin America. Readings include fictional as well as analytical representations, and a film series will accompany the course. |
HIST 0850 |
This introductory course will provide an outline of major events and themes in Indian history, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the re-emergence of India as a global player in the 21st century. The course will discuss the following themes: society and economy in Mughal India; global trade between India and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the English East India Company’s control over Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; its emergence and transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements in the 19th century; the emergence of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; independence and the partition of the subcontinent; the emergence of the world’s largest democracy; the making of an Indian middle class; and the nuclearization of South Asia. |
HIST 0862 |
This course describes and analyses the current state of globalization and sets it in historical perspective. It applies the concepts and methods of anthropology, history, political economy and sociology to the analysis and interpretation of what is actually happening in the course of the semester that relates to the progress of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about what is happening but about the growing awareness of it and the consequences of the increasing awareness. In answering these questions we distinguish between active campaigns to cover the world (e.g. Christian and Muslim proselytism, free-trade agreements, democratization) and the unplanned diffusion of new ways of organizing trade, capital flows, tourism and remote interaction via the Internet. The body of the course deals with particular dimensions of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of each. The overall approach is historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught collaboratively by an anthropologist, an historian, and a sociologist, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary approaches. It seeks to develop a general social-science-based theoretical understanding of the various historical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social and cultural. |
HIST 1475 |
With its booming economy, the recent inauguration of its first female president, and its selection as host to the 2012 World Cup and Olympic games, Brazil is growing in global prestige. But amid all these exciting developments are devastating socioeconomic inequalities. Access to safe living conditions, livable wages, higher education, and overall social mobility remain painfully out of reach to many Brazilians, the majority of whom are the descendants of slaves. Why do these problems persist in a country that has had such an enduring and widespread reputation as a “racial democracy?” What are the possibilities of closing the equality gap in Brazil? To answer these and other questions, our course takes a long and expansive view of Brazilian history. We begin with an exploration of Brazil’s early formation as a Portuguese colony in the sixteenth century before moving on to tracing its development as one of the largest and longest-lasting slaveholding societies in the world. >From there we will examine the gradual process of abolition in the region, the transition to an independent republic in the nineteenth century, as well as the nation-building projects and political crises of the twentieth century. We will conclude with an analysis of the major issues shaping modern Brazilian society and culture. |
HIST 1702 |
Introduction to Latino and Latin American Studies |
HIST 3150 |
Topics in US History. |
HSOC 0361 |
Medical Missionaries and Partners |
HSOC 0480 |
Two fundamental questions structure this course: (1) What kinds of factors shape population health in various parts of the world in the twenty-first century? and (2)What kinds of intellectual tools are necessary in order to study global health? Grasping the deeper “socialness” of health and health care in a variety of cultures and time periods requires a sustained interdisciplinary approach. “Health and Societies: Global Perspectives” blends the methods of history, sociology, anthropology and related disciplines in order to expose the layers of causation and meaning beneath what we often see as straightforward, common-sense responses to biological phenomena. Assignments throughout the semester provide a hands-on introduction to research strategies in these core disciplines. The course culminates with pragmatic, student-led assessments of global health policies designed to identify creative and cost effective solutions to the most persistent health problems in the world today. |
HSOC 0490 |
This course focuses on health and healing in the colonial and post-colonial world. We give special attention to local healing under condition of domination, to definitions of the body and the person in biomedicine and in non-European healing traditions, and to the political and cultural place of medicine in regions which have experienced colonial rule. |
HSOC 1222 |
This course is designed to give the student a general introduction to the sociological study of medicine. Medical sociology is a broad field, covering topics as diverse as the institution and profession of medicine, the practice of medical care, and the social factors that contribute to sickness and well-being. While we will not cover everything, we will attempt to cover as much of the field as possible through four central thematic units: (1) the organization of development of the profession of medicine, (2) the delivery of health-care, (3) social cultural factors in defining health, and (4) the social causes of illness. Throughout the course, our discussions will be designed to understand the sociological perspective and encourage the application of such a perspective to a variety of contemporary medical issues. |
HSOC 1382 |
Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology – culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body – and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. |
HSOC 2202 |
This course develops some of the major measures used to assess the health of populations and uses those measures to consider the major factors that determine levels of health in large aggregates. These factors include the disease environment, medical technology, public health initiatives, and personal behaviors. The approach is comparative and historical and includes attention to differences in health levels among major social groups. |
HSOC 2304 |
Malaria, Dengue, Chagas disease, the Plague–some of the most deadly and widespread infectious diseases are carried by insects. The insects are also pernicious pests; bed bugs have returned from obscurity to wreak havoc on communities, invasive species decimate agricultural production, and wood borers are threatening forests across the United States. At the same time declines among the insects on which we depend–the honeybees and other pollinators–threaten our food security and ultimately the political stability of the US and other nations. We will study the areas where the insects and humans cross paths, and explore how our interactions with insects can be cause, consequence or symptom of much broader issues. This is not an entomology course but will cover a lot about bugs. Its not a traditional epidemiology course but will cover some fascinating epidemiological theory originally developed for the control of disease vectors. Its not a history cour but will cover past epidemics and infestations tha have changed the course of the history of cities a reversed advancing armies. Assignments will includ essays and presentations. |
HSOC 3377 |
Racialized medical provisions under Apartheid in South Africa, theories of racial immunity to malaria in the Philippines and contemporary investigations of caste-based disease risks in India are some of the topics to be covered in this course. From the more straightforward issues of racial discrimination in medicine, to more complex issues of racial immunity or racial susceptibility to disease, medicine and race have been entangled together in multiple ways. More importantly these issues are far from being matters of the past. Genomic medicine and risk society have combined to make race and medicine one of the most potent contemporary issues. Outside the Western World, in the Global South, these issues are further refracted through local cultural, historical and political concerns. This course will take a long-term view of these contemporary issues. |
HSOC 4364 |
Biopiracy has emerged as the name of conflict between multinational pharmaceutical companies attempting to get genetic patents on medicinal plants and indigenous communities in the Global South who have long known and used these plants for medicinal purposes. Today the story of Biopiracy is an unfolding story of plants, patents and power. The extraction and commercial exploitation of plants and knowledge about them from the Global South however is not new. It has been happening at increasing pace for at least the last two centuries. Both the anti-malarial drug quinine and the cancer drug vincristine for instance have their plant-origins in the Global South where local communities used them medicinally long before their discovery by biomedicine. This course will put the current debates around Biopiracy in context and explore how the entanglements of plants and power have changed or not changed. |
KORN 0870 |
Offered through the Penn Language Center. This course is designed for advanced level students focusing on developing knowledge about Korean society in areas such as education, politics, economy, environment, health, and mass communication. Audiovisual materials and newspaper articles are used for this course. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions, research, and presentations. |
LALS 0720 |
Introduction to Latino and Latin American Studies |
NURS3160 / 5160 |
A detailed consideration of the nature, consequences, and causes of hunger and undernutrition internationally. Approaches are explored to bringing about change, and to formulating and implementing policies and programs at international, national, and local levels, designed to alleviate hunger and under-nutrition. Prerequisite: Graduate Students Only This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond. Spring 1 Course Unit |
NURS3560 |
This course will explore the cultural context of birth and the activities of women and professionals and/or attendants in meeting the health care needs of pregnant women. The history of caring for women at birth, international health care, cultural mores/societal values, place of birth, psychosocial factors, ethical decision-making and the role of technology are content areas that will be discussed. |
NURS3610 |
Human milk is recognized universally as the optimal diet for newborn infants. Suboptimal breastfeeding rates are a global public health issue. Despite the World Health Organization recommending early exclusive breastfeeding with continued breastfeeding through at least age 2, these recommendations are not being met. Less than 50% of infants are breastfed within the first hour of birth and only 40% of infants receive exclusive human milk for the first 6 months. The World Health Organization has promoted breastfeeding as a primary preventive health strategy for over 25 years. In January 2011, the United States Surgeon General released a Call for Breastfeeding Action stating, “we all have a role in helping mothers to breastfeed.” Through classroom and clinical experiences, this course will provide an in-depth examination of the anatomy and physiology of lactation, essential aspects of establishing and maintaining lactation, and the nurses’ role in counseling the breastfeeding family. Emphasis will be placed on current research findings from around the world. |
NURS5000 |
This course provides an introduction to epidemiologic methods and overview of the role of epidemiology in studies of disease etiology and in the planning, delivery and evaluation of health services. The population-based approach to the collection and analysis of health data will be emphasized throughout the course. Through textbook reading, problems sets, class discussion and review ofthe recent literature, students will become acquainted with the basic designs of epidemiologic studies in theory and in practice. Students will develop the basic skills necessary to use epidemiologic knowledge and methods as the basis for scientific public health practice. Background in elementary statistics is a prerequisite for this course. |
NURS5180 |
This course examines changing ideas about the nature of health and illness; changing forms of health care delivery; changing experiences of women as providers and patients; changing role expectations and realities for nurses; changing midwifery practice; and changing segmentation of the health care labor market by gender, class and race. It takes a gender perspective on all topics considered in the course. A comparative approach is used as national and international literature is considered. This focus is presented as one way of understanding the complex interrelationships among gender, class, and race in health care systems of the United States and countries abroad. |
NURS5880 |
This course will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to address the field of women’s health care. The constructs of women’s health care will be examined from a clinical, as well as sociological, anthropological and political point of view. Topics will reflect the historical movement of women’s health care from an an obstetrical/gynecological view to one that encompasses the entire life span and life needs of women. The emphasis of the course will be to undertake a critical exploration of the diversity diversity of women’s health care needs and the past and current approaches to this care. Issues will be addressed from both a national and global perspective, with a particular focus on the relationship between women’s equality/inequality status and state of health.This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond. |
NURS6400 |
This participatory interdisciplinary seminar course examines contemporary issues in public health policy and global health. The organizing framework is social determinants of health. We consider evidence that inequalities in education, income, and occupation influence health status, and the policy dilemma that broad interventions to improve population health may increase health disparities. We critically examine whether prevention is always better than cure, and what modern medicine has to offer in terms of health. We explore the public policy process in health using the “tobacco wars” as a case example, of how politics, policy, law, commercial interests, and research intersect to affect the public’s health. We examine whether global health is in a state of decline, and the extent to which failures in public health, public policy, and foreign policy have contributed to increasing threats to world health. Likewise we will examine the potential for greater integration of health into foreign policy to create global infrastructure upon which to advance health. We will examine the global health workforce and the impact of widespread global migration of health professionals on receiving and sending countries.There are no prerequisites. The course is designed for graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences, health professions, public health, business and law. Advanced undergraduate students will be admitted with permission. |
NURS6770 |
This course presents general principals of toxicology and the disposition of toxins in the body. Case studies of the effects of environmental and occupational toxins on individuals will be analyzed. This course is designed for students who desire a strong foundation in toxicological concepts and principals and provides an overview of major toxins in our environment and their association with human health. |
NURS6880 |
The dramatic rise in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the American public requires that the contemporary health care practitioner have an awareness of CAM therapies and modalities currently available. The end result of this is course will not be proficiency in the practice of any of these modalities in particular, but rather a basic understanding of each approach to common conditions and their potential contribution to health and well-being. The focus of the CAM modalities discussed in this course will center on their use in women’s health care provision. |
PUBH 5020 |
This course will provide an introduction to the principles and methods of epidemiology as a research science. The course introduces the student designs applied to human populations, including randomized trials and observational studies (cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, ecological). Homework and in- class assignments focus on building skills in locating, assessing, and synthesizing evidence from the epidemiologic literature, with an emphasis on critical thinking, causal inference, and understanding bias and confounding. |
PUBH 5030 |
This course will provide a broad introduction to the scientific basis of occupational and environmental health. Content will address issues in the ambient, occupational and global environments as well as the tools, concepts and methods used in environmental health. |
PUBH 5290 |
This course will survey a range of key current and historic topics in family planning nationally and internationally. Policy, epidemiology, clinical practice, advocacy, and service delivery topics will be covered through presentations and conversations with leaders in the field of reproductive health. The course will provide students with a broad general introduction to family planning which is appropriate for those interested in either public health or clinical aspects of the field. For students who wish to pursue a focused career in this area this course is a necessary introduction, while students who will be working in related areas of public health will have a broad general understanding of family planning. Students will participate through an interactive seminar style and will prepare an oral presentation on a relevant topic of their choice. |
PUBH 5300 |
This course presents general principals of toxicology and the disposition of toxins in the body. Case studies of the effects of environmental and occupational toxins on individuals will be analyzed. This course is designed for students who desire a strong foundation in toxicological concepts and principals and provides an overview of major toxins in our environment and their association with human health. |
PUBH 5510 |
This participatory interdisciplinary seminar course examines contemporary issues in global health policy and delivery. The overall organizing framework for the class is the social determinants of health. The class will consider evidence that inequalities in education, income, and occupation influence health status. Students will develop skills in policy analysis, policy brief development, and policy impact monitoring. The public policy process will be explored using a variety of contemporary global health case studies which focuson content areas such as maternal health, HIV policy, refugee health an global healthcare delivery. Finally, we will examine the global health workforce and te impact of widespread global migration of health professionals on receiving and sending countries. |
RELS 4050 |
Urban development has been influenced by religious conceptions of social and economic justice. Progressive traditions within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Baha’i, Humanism and other religions and systems of moral thought have yielded powerful critiques of oppression and hierarchy as well as alternative economic frameworks for ownership, governance, production, labor, and community. Historical and contemporary case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be considered, as we examine the ways in which religious responses to poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction have generated new forms of resistance and development. |
SAST 0001 |
This introductory course will provide an outline of major events and themes in Indian history, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the re-emergence of India as a global player in the 21st century. The course will discuss the following themes: society and economy in Mughal India; global trade between India and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the English East India Company’s control over Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; its emergence and transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements in the 19th century; the emergence of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; independence and the partition of the subcontinent; the emergence of the world’s largest democracy; the making of an Indian middle class; and the nuclearization of South Asia. |
SAST 0063 |
Sugar and Spices. Tea and Coffee. Opium and Cocaine. Hop aboard the Indian Ocean dhows, Chinese junks, Dutch schooners, and British and American clipper ships that made possible the rise of global capitalism, new colonial relationships, and the intensified forms of cultural change. How have the desires to possess and consume particular commodities shaped cultures and the course of modern history? This class introduces students to the cultural history of the modern world through an interdisciplinary analysis of connections between East and West, South and North. Following the circulation of commodities and the development of modern capitalism, the course examines the impact of global exchange on interactions and relationships between regions, nations, cultures, and peoples and the influences on cultural practices and meanings. The role of slavery and labor migrations, colonial and imperial relations, and struggles for economic and political independence are also considered. Recitation will not meet every week. Lecture sessions will be shortened those weeks that recitations are held. |
SOCI 2220 |
This course develops some of the major measures used to assess the health of populations and uses those measures to consider the major factors that determine levels of health in large aggregates. These factors include the disease environment, medical technology, public health initiatives, and personal behaviors. The approach is comparative and historical and includes attention to differences in health levels among major social groups. |
SPAN 1800 |
Prerequisite: Spanish 202 or Spanish 212 The primary aim of this course is to develop students’ knowledge of the geographical, historical and cultural contexts of the Spanish-speaking world. At the same time that they are introduced to research techniques and materials available in Spanish, students strengthen their language skills through reading, oral presentations, video viewing, and regular writing assignments. The course is designed to give students a broad understanding of Hispanic culture that will prepare them for upper-level course work and study abroad. |
STSC 0490 |
This course focuses on health and healing in the colonial and post-colonial world. We give special attention to local healing under condition of domination, to definitions of the body and the person in biomedicine and in non-European healing traditions, and to the political and cultural place of medicine in regions which have experienced colonial rule. |
URBS 4570 |
Over the past two decades, the public imagination has been gripped by the concept of globalization. Scholars, corporations, advertisers and government officials have latched onto this idea as a defining feature of our current era. These various constituencies use globalization not only to account for epochal shifts in our economy and society, but also to justify new types of business strategy and public policy. This course will examine three interlinked dimensions of globalization: Global economic processes (e.g. the transnational operations of multinational firms that have given rise to a new international division of labor); cultural globalization (e.g. the spread of American brands like Coca Cola, Nike and Hollywood films), and political globalization (e.g. the rise of supranational organizations like the IMF, World Bank and WTO that promote the idea of free markets). Moreover, we will study globalization in the context of cities because, given their centrality to globalization processes, it is in cities that we can best understand how globalization takes place. In cities, we can study the global economic processes that restructure urban space, giving rise to new financial districts, international art exhibits and post-modern architecture and entrepreneurial strategies that seek to elevate cities to world city status. The course will examine these processes in a comparative light, contrasting urban globalization processes in Europe and North America with those in Latin America, Asia and Africa. |
URBS 4730 |
Power is the ability to create change. This course will integrate the history and theories of community organizing so that each student will be able to develop a transformational praxis. We will examine social inequality and intersectionality, and explore effective strategies in organizing for social change. This course is inter-disciplinary, involving political economy, sociology, history, social work and leadership theory. Inquiry-based and problem-posing methods will serve as the primary means of formative assessment. Cross listed as SOCI473 |