PBHL305: Global Health

This course aims to explore global health and disease issues with a focus on health concerns shared by societies around the globe. The course is organized around the premise that culture is central to understanding major issues in global health. The social construction of health and illness across cultures using ethnographic case studies representing a wide range of human experience in domestic and international contexts would be examined. Approaches to improving health and affecting change, based on scientific and social knowledge and experience, health systems development, social and political movements and public policy making are presented. Topics include poverty, war, pollution, food security, neglected tropical diseases, religion and health, economic globalization, and public policies in developing and developed countries. Foundational issues of ethics, social justice and human rights are explored.