Courses

The course presents a core topic in global health and development that is at the intersection of science, society, and policy. The course familiarizes students with leading approaches to analyzing the causes of malnutrition in countries around the world and to designing and evaluating nutrition interventions. It covers micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies; approaches to reducing malnutrition; the cultural, economic, environmental, agricultural, and policy context within which malnutrition exists; and the relationships between common infections and nutritional status.

An examination of the variety of approaches to the social, cultural, and intellectual history of medicine and public health. Reading and discussion of the recent scholarly literature in the field, sampling writings on health care, illness experiences, and medical cultures in Europe, the Americas, and Asia from antiquity to the twentieth century. Topics include the role of gender, class, ethnicity, race, religion, and region in the experience of health care and sickness and in the construction of medical knowledge; the interplay between lay and professional understandings of the body: the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations; citizenship, nationalism, and imperialism; and the visual culture of medicine.

Recognizing the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that influence health, this course is designed to prepare graduate and advanced undergraduate students to develop their own short-term global health research proposals to be conducted in resource-constrained settings. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches, the ethical aspects of conducting research in resource-constrained settings, and the process of obtaining human subjects approval are among topics discussed. Designed for those with little or no prior independent research experience and those who have not previously taken a course on research methods. Prerequisite: a course on statistics (may be taken concurrently) or permission of the instructor.

This course deals with the interconnection of the global political economy, local social structures, construc­tions of meanings, and health. We examine these relations using theoretical approaches and case studies. This class also emphasizes geospatial research methods and how one can apply these medical geography methods in the workplace. Also included is a discus­sion of the relation of disease and national security, the U.S. public health structure in a global perspective, and social justice issues.

Nonconventional threats to national and international security concern the environment, demographic change and migration, resource scarcity, urbanization, food, energy, health, and disease. This seminar is designed to provide students with a conceptual, theoretical, and empirical grounding in debates and matters concerning security in this nonconventional context. Empirical observations are embedded in theoretical discussions about the role of the state, forms of state intervention, social and political theory, as well as an understanding of the relationship between complex social systems.

The course presents a core topic in global health and development that is at the intersection of science, society, and policy. The course familiarizes students with leading approaches to analyzing the causes of malnutrition in countries around the world and to designing and evaluating nutrition interventions. It covers micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies; approaches to reducing malnutrition; the cultural, economic, environmental, agricultural, and policy context within which malnutrition exists; and the relationships between common infections and nutritional status.

An introductory topic-based course in modern parasitology. For each topic there is an introductory lecture followed by a journal club-like discussion session of relevant papers selected from the literature. This course provides an introduction to basic biological concepts of parasitic eukaryotes causing diseases in humans. Topics include strategies used by parasitic eukaryotes to establish infections in the host and approaches to disease control, through either chemotherapy, vaccines, or genomics. In addition, emphasis is placed on evaluating the quality and limitation of scientific publications and developing skills in scientific communication. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

This is an interdisciplinary graduate course designed for students who are familiar with the basic science of climate change and the international negotiations that have occurred since the drafting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. The course draws on diverse fields ranging from economics to international relations and energy systems analysis. We examine climate change from an international perspective, with particular emphasis placed on the world's developing countries. The course opens with a brief review of the latest scientific findings, the most recent developments in climate change policy, and an overview of common tools that analysts use to examine the climate question. We then devote roughly half of the term to examining climate change impacts and adaptation and half to mitigation. In looking at impacts and adaptation, we examine social and biophysical vulnerabilities to environmental change and explore the policies and measures that have been proposed to minimize the impacts of climate change. In examining mitigation, we discuss technological options, policies, and socioeconomic impacts of mitigative measures. The course has a mixed lecture-discussion format. Participation during discussion is strongly encouraged and is incorporated in student evaluations. In addition, there are several guest speakers and potentially one field trip to the United Nations. Course enrollment limited to 25.

This course presents an introduction to epidemiologic concepts and methods. Topics include measurement of disease occurrence, descriptive epidemiology, ecologic studies, cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, measurement validity, screening, causation, random variation, bias, confounding, effect modification, randomized controlled trials, epidemic investigation, and molecular epidemiology. The couse utilizes a wide variety of case studies from both chronic and infectious disease epidemiology.

The global challenge of malaria examined in comparative and historical context. The mosquito theory of transmission and other developments in scientific understanding of the disease; World Health Organization strategies to eradicate malaria since 1955; the development of tools such as insecticides, medication, and bed nets; the attempt to create an effective vaccine.

Recognizing the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that influence health, this course is designed to prepare graduate and advanced undergraduate students to develop their own short-term global health research proposals to be conducted in resource-constrained settings. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches, the ethical aspects of conducting research in resource-constrained settings, and the process of obtaining human subjects approval are among topics discussed. Designed for those with little or no prior independent research experience and those who have not previously taken a course on research methods. Prerequisite: a course on statistics (may be taken concurrently) or permission of the instructor.

Most population growth in the twenty-first century will occur in the urban areas of the developing world, which are expected to increase by two billion inhabitants by 2030. Urban living poses environmental hazards, which affect the current population and especially the poor, through immediate, local impacts on health and safety. It also causes environmental degradation, with longer-term, wider-area, and intergenerational consequences. Variations in the incidence and relative severity of a range of environmental problems across cities at different levels of development suggest differences in priorities for action. The massive new investment in the capital stock of cities required for the doubling of urban population by 2030 will be critical to environmental outcomes. Using a number of city case studies, the course highlights local solutions, as well as new technologies for monitoring, planning, and managing urban growth. Active student participation is required, including individual class presentations and a final group project.

The seminar explores the legal and political aspects of sexual rights claims in contemporary international, regional, and selected national forums. The term "sexual rights" has been increasingly used in national and international settings to encompass an expanding universe of claims relating to sexuality; these include freedom and equality of sexual orientations and behaviors, freedom from sexual violence, conditions for sexual health, rights to sexual expression and association, rights to marry and form families, as well as rights to sexual relationships without marriage, and freedom to determine the relation between sexuality and reproduction. These claims are grounded in legal guarantees that are found in many different legal instruments, such as those relating to privacy, health, nondiscrimination, information, expression, association, and freedom from torture and arbitrary detention. Judicial, activist, and scholarly arguments for sexual rights (particularly those outside the United States) often borrow heavily across borders, invoking international, regional, and comparative standards. The status of sexual rights claims varies widely in national and regional courts, however, and political and doctrinal approaches are often inconsistent or inapplicable across claimants. Complications in building national and transnational coherence stem from cross- and intracultural differences of gender, racial and age-based social organization and norms, as well as the diversity of national legal doctrines and advocates' interests. Key questions guiding the seminar include: How does sexual rights advocacy fit with other justice claims in debates about globalization and justice? What role does sexual rights claiming and attendant legal challenges play in national and global politics? What are the tensions between the push for transnational rights advocacy and local specificity? What impact does the turn to law have on these debates?

An examination of the 1994 Rwandan genocide: historical sources of the conflict, the motivations of the killers, actions and reactions of outside actors, efforts to reconstruct a post-genocide society, and continuation of the genocidal dynamic within the Great Lakes region. Consideration of other countries in similar situations, as well as other genocides in recent decades.

Permission of instructor required.

Major theoretical orientations in medical anthropology. Examples of cross-cultural sickness, health, healing, and witchcraft.

Theoretical debates about the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical, and literary inquiry. The persistence of the mind-body dualism, experiences of embodiment and alienation, phenomenology of the body, Foucauldian notions of biopolitics, biopower and the ethic of the self, the medicalized body, and the gendered body.

Permission of instructor required.

This interdisciplinary seminar, designed for graduate students in Anthropology and Global Health, explores in an in-depth fashion anthropological ethnographies on many of the serious health problems facing populations in resource-poor societies around the globe. The course focuses on three major issues: (1) poverty, structural violence, and health as a human right; (2) struggles with infectious disease; and (3) the health of women and children (and men, too). Within these three themes, many major issues of global health concern are addressed, including the health-demoting effects of poverty, racism, patriarchy, and inhumane conditions of life and labor in many countries; men's and women's sexuality in the era of HIV/AIDS; the politics of epidemic disease control and other disasters, and the role of communities, nation-states, and international organizations in responding to such crises; issues of coercion in population control and the quest for reproductive rights; and how child health is ultimately dependent on the health and well-being of mothers. The underlying purpose of the course is to develop students' awareness of the political, socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural complexity of most health problems in so-called developing nations and the consequent need for anthropological sensitivity, contextualization, and activist involvement in the field of global health. The course is also designed to expose students to salient health issues in many parts of the world from the United States to China. However, the primary focus is on global health issues facing sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

This course presents an introduction to epidemiologic definitions, concepts, and methods. Topics include history of epidemiology, descriptive epidemiology, measurement of disease occurrence and association, study design (ecologic, cross-sectional, case-control studies, cohort, and intervention), surveillance, measurement validity and screening, random variation and precision, bias, confounding, effect modification, and causality. The course also teaches skills for quantitative problem solving, and the understanding of epidemiologic concepts in the published literature.

This course provides an overview of the critical issues in the global epidemiology and prevention of HIV/AIDS among vulnerable populations. The course emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to the comprehension of and response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The course is designed to go beyond the mere provision of information by encouraging students to develop the ability to critically access and analyze research, programmatic, policy, and ethical challenges raised by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

An introductory topic-based course in modern parasitology. For each topic there is an introductory lecture followed by a journal club-like discussion session of relevant papers selected from the literature. This course provides an introduction to basic biological concepts of parasitic eukaryotes causing diseases in humans. Topics include strategies used by parasitic eukaryotes to establish infections in the host and approaches to disease control, through either chemotherapy, vaccines, or genomics. In addition, emphasis is placed on evaluating the quality and limitation of scientific publications and developing skills in scientific communication. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

An examination of the variety of approaches to the social, cultural, and intellectual history of medicine and public health. Reading and discussion of the recent scholarly literature in the field, sampling writings on health care, illness experiences, and medical cultures in Europe, the Americas, and Asia from antiquity to the twentieth century. Topics include the role of gender, class, ethnicity, race, religion, and region in the experience of health care and sickness and in the construction of medical knowledge; the interplay between lay and professional understandings of the body: the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations; citizenship, nationalism, and imperialism; and the visual culture of medicine.

Approaches in different countries, both developed and developing, to a number of core issues in biomedical ethics: organ transplants, end-of-life care, human-subject research, and access to health care. Readings in primary and secondary sources, including international treaties and standards.

This course focuses on the Emergency Support Functions #8 (ESF #8), which are the planning and response functions related to public health and health care. It encompasses the seventeen functional content areas comprising the health and medical response to disasters. ESF #8 places the critical health and medical functions in the context of a large-scale event that includes other social, economic, and civil aspects. This is the magnitude of incident targeted by the National Health Security Strategy, in which public health consequences can destabilize national security. In major disasters and public health emergencies, much of the responsibility for incident management resides in the emergency management community, while leadership of the health and medical response is assigned by law and policy to public health as the lead agency for ESF #8. This course focuses on the requirements for planning and response that will be generated by specific public health threats; how to develop plans that include both procurement and deployment of the required resources; and how to execute those plans within the complex, interagency, operational environment. A unique component of the course is participation in the Yale-Tulane VMOC (virtual medical operations center), which assists with a common operating picture and briefing materials for decision makers in a public health emergency.

This is an interdisciplinary graduate course designed for students who are familiar with the basic science of climate change and the international negotiations that have occurred since the drafting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. The course draws on diverse fields ranging from economics to international relations and energy systems analysis. We examine climate change from an international perspective, with particular emphasis placed on the world's developing countries. The course opens with a brief review of the latest scientific findings, the most recent developments in climate change policy, and an overview of common tools that analysts use to examine the climate question. We then devote roughly half of the term to examining climate change impacts and adaptation and half to mitigation. In looking at impacts and adaptation, we examine social and biophysical vulnerabilities to environmental change and explore the policies and measures that have been proposed to minimize the impacts of climate change. In examining mitigation, we discuss technological options, policies, and socioeconomic impacts of mitigative measures. The course has a mixed lecture-discussion format. Participation during discussion is strongly encouraged and is incorporated in student evaluations. In addition, there are several guest speakers and potentially one field trip to the United Nations. Course enrollment limited to 25.

An examination of the 1994 Rwandan genocide: historical sources of the conflict, the motivations of the killers, actions and reactions of outside actors, efforts to reconstruct a post-genocide society, and continuation of the genocidal dynamic within the Great Lakes region. Consideration of other countries in similar situations, as well as other genocides in recent decades.

Permission of instructor required.

The intersections of race, class, gender, and other axes of "difference" and their effects on women's health, primarily in the contemporary United States. Recent feminist approaches to intersectionality and multiplicity of oppressions theory. Ways in which anthropologists studying women's health issues have contributed to social and feminist theory at the intersections of race/class/gender.

Permission of instructor required.

Study of technological advances that have global health applications. Ways in which biotechnology has enhanced quality of life in the developing world. The challenges of implementing relevant technologies in resource-limited environments, including technical, practical, social, and ethical aspects.

Prerequisite: MCDB 120.

This course examines the challenges faced by for profit firms and non-profits operating in the developing world. The course first focuses on conducting business in environments with weak or deficient institutions, including corruption, political risk, and poor investor protection, and then explores the role of the private sector in development, including both the contributions to and the costs imposed by multi-nationals, non-profits, and NGOs in developing countries.

The course deals with practical issues of communication about health and healing in South Africa. It focuses on the Nguni language environment (Zulu/Xhosa/Swati/ Ndebele) but also addresses some issues relating to other South African languages. The course offers an introduction to Zulu language in the context of health, and to social and cultural issues surrounding the origins of suffering, the articulation of symptoms, and the role of the family, traditional healers, and Western medical practitioners. Particular attention is given to HIV/AIDS in the community and to the status and attitudes of young people.

This course is intended to provide students with a strong foundation in public health surveillance of both infectious and noninfectious disease. The course teaches the theory and practice of surveillance, supported by many examples of surveillance systems from the developing world. The class builds on and reinforces basic epidemiological concepts. Students are given the opportunity to design and evaluate a surveillance system.

Mental health contributes 14 percent to the global burden of disease. In settings affected by natural or industrial disasters, armed conflicts or war, it constitutes a crucial public health concern. Combining multidisciplinary theoretical approaches with empirical research and interventions, this course is aimed at students who are interested in working in humanitarian settings on issues of mental health and psychosocial support, both from a research and practice point of view. Particularly relevant for students in international and area studies, public health, mental health, (clinical) psychology, (medical) anthropology, (medical) sociology, and related disciplines and anyone interested in bridging the gap between academics and practitioners in this field.

Core principles for the development and implementation of grand strategy in addressing common global health problems. Application of these principles and of strategic problem solving at both conceptual and practical levels. Political and policy analysis, organizational theory, and leadership skills central to addressing global health issues in low- and middle-income countries.

Permission of instructor required.

Billions lack access to basic medical care, and global health inequalities are wide and growing. Such radical disparities cast doubt on the justice of supranational institutional arrangements (such as the TRIPS Agreement) and also pose ethical challenges for the global health community, especially international and domestic health and development institutions. Seeking to illuminate the normative issues involved, the course features a series of distinguished visitors, including academics as well as a few important representatives of international organizations, politics, foundations, NGOs, and relevant industries. Follows Law School academic calendar.

This seminar will review theoretical positions and debates in the burgeoning fields of medical anthropology and science and technology studies (STS). We will begin this seminar by reading Georges Canguilhem’s The Normal and the Pathological as a starting point to explore how “disease” and “health” in the early 19-century became inseparable from political, economic, and technological imperatives. By highlighting the epistemological foundations of modern biology and medicine, the remainder of this seminar will then focus on major perspectives in, and responses to, critical studies of health and medicine, subjectivity and the body, psychiatric anthropology, global health, and humanitarianism and medicine.

The course brings historical, geopolitical, medical, and public health perspectives to bear on the study of specific epidemics, with a focus on Asia. Case studies include major epidemics such as cholera in the Philippines and plague in Manchuria in the early twentieth century, the story of Japan's biological warfare Unit 731 in World War II, recurrent influenza pandemics, and more recently, Nipah virus outbreaks in Malaysia, SARS in China, and pneumonic plague in Gujarat, India.

The course presents a core topic in global health and development that is at the intersection of science, society, and policy. The course familiarizes students with leading approaches to analyzing the causes of malnutrition in countries around the world and to designing and evaluating nutrition interventions. It covers micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies; approaches to reducing malnutrition; the cultural, economic, environmental, agricultural, and policy context within which malnutrition exists; and the relationships between common infections and nutritional status.

Diseases transmitted to humans by arthropods (vector-borne) or animal reservoirs (zoonotic) constitute the majority of globally (re)emerging infectious diseases. The purpose of this course is to explore factors underlying the risk to humans of acquiring vector-borne and zoonotic diseases (VBZD) like malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, rabies, hantavirus, etc. Students learn how human risk for these diseases can be described and predicted by understanding the ecology of vectors and reservoirs and the factors allowing for maintenance and transmission of pathogens. The course utilizes a combination of lectures, discussion of primary literature, practical exercises on risk mapping, and guest speakers.

This course is designed to provide an understanding of global health systems, particularly as they relate to the delivery, organization, and financing of health care in developing countries. The course covers three broad areas. First, it acquaints students with the existing global health architecture, highlighting the roles and interactions of global health stakeholders, and focusing on critiques of the current architecture. Second, it analyzes the way health systems in developing countries are organized, financed, and regulated, and how these policies affect health-related behaviors and health outcomes. Finally, the course highlights the opportunities and challenges posed by behavioral responses induced by health policy.

Introduction to research methods in global health that recognize the influence of political, economic, social, and cultural factors. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches; ethical aspects of conducting research in resource-constrained settings; the process of obtaining human subjects' approval. Students develop proposals for short-term global health research projects conducted in resource-constrained settings. Prerequisite: a course on statistics (may be taken concurrently) or permission of the instructor.

Water is fundamental to life. We cannot survive without it, and yet unsafe water threatens the health of people throughout the world. This course focuses on the role of water in global health, with emphasis on the myriad ways that water affects the spread of disease, how poor sanitation contributes to unsafe water, and the different interventions that may improve water quality—and therefore, health—of people around the world.

An introduction to public international law that both governs the global commons—atmosphere, climate, oceans, and stratospheric ozone layer—and guides the national obligations for ensuring transnational public health, advancing sustainable development, and managing the Earth's shared resources: sources of energy and renewable stocks of plants and animals, biodiversity, and ecosystems services. The course examines the emerging human rights to the environment, principles of international environmental law, and international duties for public participation in environmental decision making and access to justice. The major multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are studied, with examples of how States enact environmental law regimes to implement the MEAs. Decision-making procedures of United Nations agencies and other international and regional policy and legal decision-making bodies are critically examined. The main texts are a law school casebook, D. Hunter, D. Zaelke, and J. Salzman, International Environmental Law and Policy (Foundation Press, 2002), and the UN Environment Programme's commissioned restatement of this body of law, N.A. Robinson and L. Kurukulasuriya, Manual on International Environmental Law (UNEP, 2006).

This course provides an introduction to the making and understanding of health policy. The various goals of policy making and the alternative means of achieving those goals are examined. Health issues are placed in the context of broader social goals and values. The current performance of the health care system is assessed, with particular emphasis on shifting needs, rising costs, and changing institutional arrangements. The course provides an overview of the important actors in the health care and political systems and introduces students to methods for understanding their behavior. Students apply these methods to a set of concrete policy issues.

This course presents an introduction to epidemiologic concepts and methods. Topics include measurement of disease occurrence, descriptive epidemiology, ecologic studies, cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, measurement validity, screening, causation, random variation, bias, confounding, effect modification, randomized controlled trials, epidemic investigation, and molecular epidemiology. The couse utilizes a wide variety of case studies from both chronic and infectious disease epidemiology.

The global challenge of malaria examined in comparative and historical context. The mosquito theory of transmission and other developments in scientific understanding of the disease; World Health Organization strategies to eradicate malaria since 1955; the development of tools such as insecticides, medication, and bed nets; the attempt to create an effective vaccine.

Recognizing the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that influence health, this course is designed to prepare graduate and advanced undergraduate students to develop their own short-term global health research proposals to be conducted in resource-constrained settings. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches, the ethical aspects of conducting research in resource-constrained settings, and the process of obtaining human subjects approval are among topics discussed. Designed for those with little or no prior independent research experience and those who have not previously taken a course on research methods. Prerequisite: a course on statistics (may be taken concurrently) or permission of the instructor.

Most population growth in the twenty-first century will occur in the urban areas of the developing world, which are expected to increase by two billion inhabitants by 2030. Urban living poses environmental hazards, which affect the current population and especially the poor, through immediate, local impacts on health and safety. It also causes environmental degradation, with longer-term, wider-area, and intergenerational consequences. Variations in the incidence and relative severity of a range of environmental problems across cities at different levels of development suggest differences in priorities for action. The massive new investment in the capital stock of cities required for the doubling of urban population by 2030 will be critical to environmental outcomes. Using a number of city case studies, the course highlights local solutions, as well as new technologies for monitoring, planning, and managing urban growth. Active student participation is required, including individual class presentations and a final group project.

The seminar explores the legal and political aspects of sexual rights claims in contemporary international, regional, and selected national forums. The term "sexual rights" has been increasingly used in national and international settings to encompass an expanding universe of claims relating to sexuality; these include freedom and equality of sexual orientations and behaviors, freedom from sexual violence, conditions for sexual health, rights to sexual expression and association, rights to marry and form families, as well as rights to sexual relationships without marriage, and freedom to determine the relation between sexuality and reproduction. These claims are grounded in legal guarantees that are found in many different legal instruments, such as those relating to privacy, health, nondiscrimination, information, expression, association, and freedom from torture and arbitrary detention. Judicial, activist, and scholarly arguments for sexual rights (particularly those outside the United States) often borrow heavily across borders, invoking international, regional, and comparative standards. The status of sexual rights claims varies widely in national and regional courts, however, and political and doctrinal approaches are often inconsistent or inapplicable across claimants. Complications in building national and transnational coherence stem from cross- and intracultural differences of gender, racial and age-based social organization and norms, as well as the diversity of national legal doctrines and advocates' interests. Key questions guiding the seminar include: How does sexual rights advocacy fit with other justice claims in debates about globalization and justice? What role does sexual rights claiming and attendant legal challenges play in national and global politics? What are the tensions between the push for transnational rights advocacy and local specificity? What impact does the turn to law have on these debates?

Overview of the ecology and evolution of pathogens (bacteria, viruses, protozoa) and their impact on host populations. Topics include theoretical concepts, ecological and evolutionary dynamics, molecular biology, and epidemiology of ancient and emerging diseases.  Prerequisite: E&EB 122b or permission of instructor.

Survey of the history of medicine in Latin America from Independence to the present, focusing on the relationships of disease and public health with the construction of state and nation in the countries of the region. Themes include medicine's role in the production and reproduction of race and ethnicity, the treatment of indigenous medical traditions, the sources and consequences of international disease-control efforts, and persisting inequalities in health and health care.

The collapse of the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union (EE/FSU) following 1989 has had a profound effect on both health care systems and population health in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  The unique social and economic transition this region has experienced has resulted in public health challenges distinct from those of many low-income and high-income countries, along with some marked successes.  This course will critically review these issues, using a multi-level conceptual framework of the determinants of health that incorporates macro-level factors (e.g., public policy, conflict, and political economy); community level factors (e.g.,social cohesion and stress); and individual-level factors (e.g., health behaviors). While each session is designed to explore a particular topic in depth, a number of cross-cutting issues will be addressed throughout the semester; for example:  human rights, inequalities in health, health and development, political and economic transition and health, demographic transition and health, and health system decentralization.  A multi-disciplinary perspective will be welcomed in class discussion and class assignments.

The course explores the interplay of population processes, socioeconomic development, investments in women's status, and health outcomes such as maternal and child mortality and infectious and chronic disease burdens, and examines how key health outcomes differ across regions and change over time in response to investments in women's education and changing women's roles. The course includes readings across several literatures including demography, sociology, economics, epidemiology, and public health.

The social and cultural context in which the AIDS epidemic emerged and spread in southern Africa. How people and organizations experience, conceptualize, and respond to AIDS, and how AIDS is constructed through discourse and representation.

Drawing on a wide and interdisciplinary range of texts, both classic and more recent, this course examines the theoretical debates of the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical, and literary inquiry. We explore specific themes, for example, the persistence of the mind/body dualism; experiences of embodiment/alienation; phenomenology of the body; Foucauldian notions of bio-politics, bio-power, and the ethic of the self; the medicalized body; and the gendered body, among other salient themes.

Readings on the interactions of medicine and disease with the social, economic, cultural, political, and military histories of the Caribbean region from 1492 to the present. Topics include the Columbian exchange and demographic collapse; the connections among race, slavery, and disease; the role of disease in the loss and gain of empire; the influence of U.S. public health policies; and the Cuban health care system since the Revolution.

Recent advances in the medical sciences have led to innovative new therapies and diagnostics for improving global health.  While many of these new resources have been motivated by health problems in the developed world, there has been an increasing push to bring relevant technology to the third world.  Beyond the specific scientific barriers to develop a given therapy, additional creativity is required to address the unique challenges (cost, distribution, heat stability, and follow-up) associated with bringing a successful therapy to the third world.   This course will focus on five areas in which biotechnology advances are having a direct impact in third world nations: 1) vaccines, 2) drug therapy, 3) molecular diagnostics, 4) non-invasive imaging, and 5) transgenic crops.   In addition to describing the specific technologies, significant classtime will be devoted to exploring anthropological, cultural, and ethical issues attributed to introducing these technologies to a developing country.  Non-government organizations (NGOs) and funding agencies aimed at using existing and new advances in biotechnology to improve health of the global south will be surveyed in one session of the course.  The course will conclude with presentations in which students will identify a specific health burden in a world region, survey local challenges, and propose opportunities in which new techniques in biotechnology would be used to contribute to a solution.  A written report will complement the presentation as part of the final project.

This course provides a basic understanding of human rights core principles and practices while concentrating on the complex linkage between health and human rights. The course emphasizes the implications of human rights for public health practitioners and introduces them to the framework and methodologies for analysis of human rights and public health interactions. Students are expected to become familiar with a human rights impact assessment tool and use it throughout the course. Such topics as women’s rights, children’s rights, AIDS and human rights, violence, and health literacy are explored.

The focus of the course is on national policy development. Students are exposed to the relationship among international agencies, international development frameworks, human rights instruments, and national governments in formulating national social and public policies with respect to economic and social development. The course uses early childhood, an epoch of human development, as an example to study national policy making. A policy laboratory methodology is employed to demonstrate application of policy development knowledge learned in class to a real-world setting. Selected students are offered the opportunity to travel, during spring break, to a developing country to observe and participate in policy development meetings with high-level policy makers and international development partners.

This course provides a framework for understanding social, economic, and political dimensions of development and examines how these dimensions impact individuals, groups, and communities, particularly disadvantaged and at-risk populations. The course explores how social, economic, and political forces and frameworks shape social justice, institutions, and policy and analysis in developing and transitioning economies. The course explores a range of issues, trends, and forces within each of the three dimensions of development and their relationship to health and well-being. The focus is primarily international, with perspectives and examples from developing and transitioning economies.

Billions lack access to basic medical care, and global health inequalities are wide and growing. Such radical disparities cast doubt on the justice of supranational institutional arrangements (such as the TRIPS Agreement) and also pose ethical challenges for the global health community, especially international and domestic health and development institutions. Seeking to illuminate the normative issues involved, the course features a series of distinguished visitors, including academics as well as a few important representatives of international organizations, politics, foundations, NGOs, and relevant industries. Follows Law School academic calendar.

This course is designed to introduce public health graduate students to a broad range of critical global health issues, with a particular emphasis on understanding global health through a social epidemiology lens. Global health topics to be considered will include data sources/measurement, global burden of disease, HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, reproductive health, cancers, obesity, mental health, complex humanitarian emergencies, human trafficking, gender-based violence against women, and road traffic injuries. The health of immigrant and refugee populations within the United States will also be discussed. This course will use a range of formats (lectures, group discussion, videoclips, and classroom exercises). Examples from diverse regions will be covered in the readings and in lecture. Through individual and group assignments, students will have the opportunity to explore global health issues in the context of a particular country/region in greater depth.

The collapse of the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union (EE/FSU) following 1989 has had a profound effect on both health care systems and population health in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  The unique social and economic transition this region has experienced has resulted in public health challenges distinct from those of many low-income and high-income countries, along with some marked successes.  This course will critically review these issues, using a multi-level conceptual framework of the determinants of health that incorporates macro-level factors (e.g., public policy, conflict, and political economy); community level factors (e.g.,social cohesion and stress); and individual-level factors (e.g., health behaviors). While each session is designed to explore a particular topic in depth, a number of cross-cutting issues will be addressed throughout the semester; for example:  human rights, inequalities in health, health and development, political and economic transition and health, demographic transition and health, and health system decentralization.  A multi-disciplinary perspective will be welcomed in class discussion and class assignments.

Recent advances in the medical sciences have led to innovative new therapies and diagnostics for improving global health.  While many of these new resources have been motivated by health problems in the developed world, there has been an increasing push to bring relevant technology to the third world.  Beyond the specific scientific barriers to develop a given therapy, additional creativity is required to address the unique challenges (cost, distribution, heat stability, and follow-up) associated with bringing a successful therapy to the third world.   This course will focus on five areas in which biotechnology advances are having a direct impact in third world nations: 1) vaccines, 2) drug therapy, 3) molecular diagnostics, 4) non-invasive imaging, and 5) transgenic crops.   In addition to describing the specific technologies, significant classtime will be devoted to exploring anthropological, cultural, and ethical issues attributed to introducing these technologies to a developing country.  Non-government organizations (NGOs) and funding agencies aimed at using existing and new advances in biotechnology to improve health of the global south will be surveyed in one session of the course.  The course will conclude with presentations in which students will identify a specific health burden in a world region, survey local challenges, and propose opportunities in which new techniques in biotechnology would be used to contribute to a solution.  A written report will complement the presentation as part of the final project.

This course provides a basic understanding of human rights core principles and practices while concentrating on the complex linkage between health and human rights. The course emphasizes the implications of human rights for public health practitioners and introduces them to the framework and methodologies for analysis of human rights and public health interactions. Students are expected to become familiar with a human rights impact assessment tool and use it throughout the course. Such topics as women’s rights, children’s rights, AIDS and human rights, violence, and health literacy are explored.

Study of technological advances that have global health applications. Ways in which biotechnology has enhanced quality of life in the developing world. The challenges of implementing relevant technologies in resource-limited environments, including technical, practical, social, and ethical aspects.

Prerequisite: MCDB 120.

This course examines the challenges faced by for profit firms and non-profits operating in the developing world. The course first focuses on conducting business in environments with weak or deficient institutions, including corruption, political risk, and poor investor protection, and then explores the role of the private sector in development, including both the contributions to and the costs imposed by multi-nationals, non-profits, and NGOs in developing countries.

Mental health contributes 14 percent to the global burden of disease. In settings affected by natural or industrial disasters, armed conflicts or war, it constitutes a crucial public health concern. Combining multidisciplinary theoretical approaches with empirical research and interventions, this course is aimed at students who are interested in working in humanitarian settings on issues of mental health and psychosocial support, both from a research and practice point of view. Particularly relevant for students in international and area studies, public health, mental health, (clinical) psychology, (medical) anthropology, (medical) sociology, and related disciplines and anyone interested in bridging the gap between academics and practitioners in this field.

This course is designed to introduce public health graduate students to a broad range of critical global health issues, with a particular emphasis on understanding global health through a social epidemiology lens. Global health topics to be considered will include data sources/measurement, global burden of disease, HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, reproductive health, cancers, obesity, mental health, complex humanitarian emergencies, human trafficking, gender-based violence against women, and road traffic injuries. The health of immigrant and refugee populations within the United States will also be discussed. This course will use a range of formats (lectures, group discussion, videoclips, and classroom exercises). Examples from diverse regions will be covered in the readings and in lecture. Through individual and group assignments, students will have the opportunity to explore global health issues in the context of a particular country/region in greater depth.

Insects transmit many emerging and re-emerging human and agriculture-related diseases. These insect-borne diseases have a directly negative impact on public health especially in the developing world, and can cause further indirect devastation by significantly reducing agricultural productivity and nutrient availability, exacerbating poverty and deepening disparities. This course introduces students to the major groups of important arthropod disease vectors and the pathogens they transmit. Lectures cover aspects of the ecology and physiology of arthropod vectors as they relate to pathogen transmission and disease-control strategies. A major focus of the course is on evaluating the insect-based disease-intervention methods. Current research trends are presented and critically evaluated.

The intersection of food, health, and society; emphasis on the anthropological study of food and health. The multidimensional significance of food and health within sociocultural, biocultural, and political-economic frameworks. Culturally constructed meanings and measures of the terms "food" and "health."

The worldwide population explosion in its human, environmental, and economic dimensions. Sociobiological bases of reproductive behavior. Population history and the cause of demographic change. Interactions of population growth with economic development and environmental alteration. Political, religious, and ethical issues surrounding fertility; human rights; and the status of women.

A reading seminar on struggles to control, pathologize, and normalize human bodies, with a particular focus on science, medicine, and the state, both in North America and in a broader global health context. Topics include colonialism and prostitution; repression and regulation of birth control; the teaching of sex education; the public celebration and denial of sexual difference; politics of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; public health and legal efforts to define and restrict abortion; the pathologizing and identity politics of transgendered people; and the development and regulation of artificial insemination and other methods of reproductive technology.

An advanced seminar on the long tradition of social science scholarship on environmental perturbation and natural disasters, the relevance of which has been heightened by the current global attention to climate change. Topics covered include the academic literature on the social dimension of natural disasters, illustrated with a case study of volcanic hazard; the discursive dimensions of environmental degradation, focusing on deforestation and other case studies; climate change, including discursive dimensions at the global level; the current debate about the relationship between resource wealth and political conflict, focusing on the "green war" thesis, and the case of tropical forest commodities; and alternative perspectives on sustainable environmental relations, based on interdisciplinary work and work in the humanities. Three-hour lecture/seminar. Enrollment limited to twenty.

Anthropological approaches to medicine, science, technology, and the body examined through close reading of ethnographies and canonical texts. Theoretical, political, subdisciplinary, and area studies debates in medical anthropology and the larger fields of global health, international development, and science and technology studies.

Recommended preparation: ANTH 114 or equivalent.  Permission of instructor required.

The basic concepts of biomedical engineering and their connection with the spectrum of human activity. Introduction to the fundamental science and engineering on which biomedical engineering is based. Case studies of drugs and medical products illustrate the product development–product testing cycle, patent protection, and FDA approval.

Designed for science and non–science majors.

Study of technological advances that have global health applications. Ways in which biotechnology has enhanced quality of life in the developing world. The challenges of implementing relevant technologies in resource-limited environments, including technical, practical, social, and ethical aspects.

Prerequisite: MCDB 120.

This course examines the challenges faced by for profit firms and non-profits operating in the developing world. The course first focuses on conducting business in environments with weak or deficient institutions, including corruption, political risk, and poor investor protection, and then explores the role of the private sector in development, including both the contributions to and the costs imposed by multi-nationals, non-profits, and NGOs in developing countries.

The course deals with practical issues of communication about health and healing in South Africa. It focuses on the Nguni language environment (Zulu/Xhosa/Swati/ Ndebele) but also addresses some issues relating to other South African languages. The course offers an introduction to Zulu language in the context of health, and to social and cultural issues surrounding the origins of suffering, the articulation of symptoms, and the role of the family, traditional healers, and Western medical practitioners. Particular attention is given to HIV/AIDS in the community and to the status and attitudes of young people.

This course is intended to provide students with a strong foundation in public health surveillance of both infectious and noninfectious disease. The course teaches the theory and practice of surveillance, supported by many examples of surveillance systems from the developing world. The class builds on and reinforces basic epidemiological concepts. Students are given the opportunity to design and evaluate a surveillance system.

Mental health contributes 14 percent to the global burden of disease. In settings affected by natural or industrial disasters, armed conflicts or war, it constitutes a crucial public health concern. Combining multidisciplinary theoretical approaches with empirical research and interventions, this course is aimed at students who are interested in working in humanitarian settings on issues of mental health and psychosocial support, both from a research and practice point of view. Particularly relevant for students in international and area studies, public health, mental health, (clinical) psychology, (medical) anthropology, (medical) sociology, and related disciplines and anyone interested in bridging the gap between academics and practitioners in this field.

Consideration of why so many African nations are poor, volatile, and unequal. Options for the West in addressing these conditions. Development policy approached from the perspectives of history, economic theory and empirics, geography, public health, and political science. Emphasis on critical reading, analysis, and writing.

Review of the many intersections of health, resilience, and conflict—including military, ethnic, religious, and interpersonal conflict. Evidence for the impact of conflict on both physical and emotional well-being; examination of the psychological, social, and governmental dimensions of resilience

This course provides a space for discussion and critical thought about current topics in global health. Invited speakers come together with faculty, staff, and students (from YSPH and beyond) during each session to analyze current global health challenges, existing initiatives to address them, and potential alternative approaches. Topics range from sharing lessons learned from specific programs to broader issues such as the interrelation of globalization and health. The seminar represents an opportunity for students to reflect on the hard questions of global health practice. Through these types of discussions, we hope to encourage students to understand health and their role as public health practitioners more holistically, and to begin the difficult work of developing their professional values.

An intermediate-level exploration of water resource management at scales ranging from local to global. The course looks at multiple dimensions of the water crisis, including both human and ecosystem impacts, quantity and quality issues, and science and policy. Theory is illustrated through a variety of case studies. Topics covered include global water resources; flooding; water scarcity; residential, agricultural, and industrial water use; water and health; impacts of climate change and land use change; stormwater management; dams and other technologies for water management; human impacts on aquatic ecosystems; water and energy; water economics; water rights and water conflict and cooperation. Three hours lecture; several homework assignments; several field trips.

Economic issues related to a population's education, skills, and health; focus on contemporary Latin American societies. Determinants of health and education; evaluation of human capital development policies; the role of human capital in a variety of economic contexts, including the labor market, immigration, child investment, intrahousehold bargaining, inequality, and poverty.

Prerequisites: intermediate microeconomics and econometrics.

Preregistration for junior and senior majors, held in Room 101, 28 Hillhouse Ave., is required during the designated sign-up period.

Race, health, and disease as they intersect with the captivity of blacks in the U.S. and the Caribbean from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include slavery and medicine; public health and citizenship at the turn of the twentieth century; HIV/AIDS; the prison-industrial complex; supranational zones of detainment; and the national management of natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and the Port-au-Prince earthquake of 2010.

Permission of instructor required.

An examination of the 1994 Rwandan genocide: historical sources of the conflict, the motivations of the killers, actions and reactions of outside actors, efforts to reconstruct a post-genocide society, and continuation of the genocidal dynamic within the Great Lakes region. Consideration of other countries in similar situations, as well as other genocides in recent decades.

Permission of instructor required.

Major theoretical orientations in medical anthropology. Examples of cross-cultural sickness, health, healing, and witchcraft.

Theoretical debates about the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical, and literary inquiry. The persistence of the mind-body dualism, experiences of embodiment and alienation, phenomenology of the body, Foucauldian notions of biopolitics, biopower and the ethic of the self, the medicalized body, and the gendered body.

Permission of instructor required.

The intersections of race, class, gender, and other axes of "difference" and their effects on women's health, primarily in the contemporary United States. Recent feminist approaches to intersectionality and multiplicity of oppressions theory. Ways in which anthropologists studying women's health issues have contributed to social and feminist theory at the intersections of race/class/gender.

Permission of instructor required.

Study of technological advances that have global health applications. Ways in which biotechnology has enhanced quality of life in the developing world. The challenges of implementing relevant technologies in resource-limited environments, including technical, practical, social, and ethical aspects.

Prerequisite: MCDB 120.

This course provides a framework for understanding social, economic, and political dimensions of development and examines how these dimensions impact individuals, groups, and communities, particularly disadvantaged and at-risk populations. The course explores how social, economic, and political forces and frameworks shape social justice, institutions, and policy and analysis in developing and transitioning economies. The course explores a range of issues, trends, and forces within each of the three dimensions of development and their relationship to health and well-being. The focus is primarily international, with perspectives and examples from developing and transitioning economies.

A biocultural perspective on debates in medical anthropology and global health that focus on health disparities and equity. The intersection of biological and cultural issues in matters of health research and intervention. Application of theoretical frameworks to case studies in global health inequality.

Core principles for the development and implementation of grand strategy in addressing common global health problems. Application of these principles and of strategic problem solving at both conceptual and practical levels. Political and policy analysis, organizational theory, and leadership skills central to addressing global health issues in low- and middle-income countries.

Permission of instructor required.

Economic issues related to a population's education, skills, and health; focus on contemporary Latin American societies. Determinants of health and education; evaluation of human capital development policies; the role of human capital in a variety of economic contexts, including the labor market, immigration, child investment, intrahousehold bargaining, inequality, and poverty.

Prerequisites: intermediate microeconomics and econometrics.

Preregistration for junior and senior majors, held in Room 101, 28 Hillhouse Ave., is required during the designated sign-up period.