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Our Program

In Global Health Studies, students learn to recognize key social, political, historical, and economic determinants of health, to critically analyze the role played by these determinants in global health concerns past and present, and to identify ethical and practical challenges and opportunities for designing equitable health interventions across cultural and geographical environments. 

Our students are taught to appreciate the ways in which different contexts affect health outcomes and the impact of interventions. GHS students learn how to contextualize and evaluate the value of multiple forms of global health data and evidence from different disciplines. Indeed, across our curriculum, we encourage students to critically reflect on the ways in which theories and research from the social, behavioral, and health sciences can illuminate or hinder understanding of the many complex challenges driving global health priorities.

We recognize a crucial aspect of the college experience is students finding and nurturing their voice. Our curriculum introduces students to how researchers frame and structure their arguments using sufficient evidence and how to compare arguments. We teach our students to develop credible and effective questions, narratives, analyses, and arguments about global health in the past and present. GHS students leave our program able to identify and think critically about the many complex determinants of existing global health inequalities, both within the U.S. and around the world. Moreover, GHS students come to understand the necessity of engaging with priorities and perspectives different from their own.  

The Global Health Major and Minor challenges students to think creatively and to develop their moral imaginations. GHS students want to make a difference in the world, and we endeavor to support their good intentions by encouraging an informed and engaged empathy, an ethic of care and compassion, and critical thinking around the impediments to good intentions.