FOCUS Cluster

Global Health: Local & International Disparities

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? 
• What are the social and behavioral determinants of obesity,and how does policy address the epidemic?
• 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? 
• What are the interconnections between poverty, health, and gender, and how do those connections influence the overall health of a community?

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.