FOCUS Cluster

Global Health: Local & International Disparities

Offered Spring 2009

Health is affected, for better or worse, by almost every human act. Global health is an expansive and interdisciplinary field that requires policy-makers, practitioners and researchers to integrate health-related knowledge from diverse fields to address disparities in health outcomes both at home and abroad.

This cluster will guide students as they explore the following questions:

• Why are some infectious diseases easier to control or eliminate than others? 


• How do we gather information and test hypotheses about the population-level determinants of human health and disease?


• In what instances has international law been a positive force for addressing these inequalities, and when has the law itself compounded and extended the problem? 


• How do international and local journalists report on developing countries and what effect does this reporting have?

This cluster will train students to identify factors that influence individual and population-level health in the United States and abroad. We will examine the biological, legal, economic, journalistic and social underpinnings of the spread and reduction of diseases by using case studies of global infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS as well as chronic diseases such as mental health disorders, substance abuse and cardiovascular disease.  This cluster will also examine the transition from a predominantly infectious disease health burden to a chronic and behavioral disease burden.

For the complete list of courses associated with this cluster, visit FOCUS program website.