SOC 295-05 - Special Topic: Global Health

4 credits (Spring)

This Global Health course is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. Utilizing a comprehensive textbook and guest lectures from faculty across the College, we will examine the nexus of global health care systems in terms of actual health outcomes, challenges to global health, social and economic policy, and the state. We will begin by defining global health and understanding its history. We then will study the global burden of disease, and using epidemiology,
examine global disease patterns. In the next section of the course we will investigate infectious disease and the social determinants of health, including gender, race, and social class. The third section of the course emphasizes the social organization of global health care, health economics, the role of pharmaceuticals, and the training of health care workers. After spring break, we will turn our attention to specific challenges to global health care including
disasters, environmental change, and HIV/AIDS. The last part of the course investigates comparative health care systems as students will study a country’s health care system in depth. Students will conduct research related to healthcare policy and structure, the global burden of disease, and other topics covered during the semester and share their research in an oral presentation. We conclude the course by looking at the future of global health.

Prerequisite: ANT 104, ECN 111, GDS 111, POL 101, SOC 111, or SMS 150.
Instructor: Ferguson