Global Health Minor
The Global Health minor will allow you to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of health issues and health care in a global context. Through the bundling of a broad range of courses, this minor will provide a solid foundation in social, cultural, epidemiological, environmental and nutritional determinants of health, and will explore the challenges facing global health solutions. You will investigate the health implications of globalization, as well as have the option for an engagement experience, both of which contribute to better understanding the determinants of health issues around the world.
Required Foundational Courses
Global Health
We propose a minor in Global Health that will allow students to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of health issues in a global context with focus on the biological or the social environmental. Through a broad range of courses, the minor in Global Health will provide a solid foundation in social epidemiological, environmental, and nutritional determinants of health.
Students adding a Global Health Minor to their major will explore the scientific, social, environmental and cultural challenges facing global health solutions. They will investigate the health implications of globalization, as well as have an engagement experience which is crucial to understanding the determinants of health issues around the world.
Faculty associated with the Global Health Minor come from across MSU from such areas as the Colleges of Letters and Science, Education, Agriculture, Nursing and Engineering. With courses from diverse departments such as Modern Languages and Literatures, Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Microbiology and Immunology, for example, the minor spans the breadth of the global health field.
Why does this minor matter? Our minor focuses on problems in global health from the standpoint of both clinical disease as well as from a cultural understanding of the associated cultural, socio-economic, and environmental factors. Global health is a shared responsibility and requires an equitable, interdisciplinary, and systematic approach including transnational cooperation and collaboration between health care providers, veterinarians, scientists, and local communities.
Students in this minor will study the major health issues (including both infectious and non-communicable disease) that are endemic to developing countries as well as in underprivileged and underrepresented populations in the United States. Topics of study to choose from will include: the transmission of zoonotic diseases and the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying infectious disease; the impacts of climate change and human-environmental interactions on the spread of diseases; the influence of anthropogenic environmental change on food and medicinal plant systems; dietary transitions and their implications for nutrition and health outcomes; geography, socio-economic status, and health disparity; an appreciation for culturally-appropriate best practices when working with minority cultures, and unique and indigenous care modalities; and a comparative analysis of different national health care systems.
The goal of this new minor is to support training of students who are better equipped to contribute to addressing health disparities in developing countries as well as among disadvantaged populations in the United States. The proposed minor is well aligned with MSU’s strategic plan goal of integrating learning, discovery, and engagement through increased collaboration across disciplines, international experiences for students, and engagement with communities internationally.
Unique Components of Curriculum:
- Cultural linguistic component: basic proficiency in Spanish, French or Chinese.
- Engagement project: In consultation with an advisor, students in the minor will develop an engagement project related to any aspect of global health in a local or international environment.
- Students in this minor can enhance their majors by focusing the minor on any related health area. For example, (1) the biomedical, (2) the cultural, socio-economic, (3) policy issues such as food access related to world health problems or (4) ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases.
Learning Outcomes:
Students completing the Global Health Minor will be able to:
- Be familiar with major diseases that increase morbidity and mortality, with particular emphasis on diseases in low resource communities regionally and globally.
- Analyze health disparities through cultural and socio-political perspectives to identify restrictions and challenges.
- Use specific discipline-based methodologies (from engineering, political science, public health, etc.) to examine issues of health inequity and perceptions of health.
- Develop cross-cultural competency as well as awareness of and sensitivity to cultural differences.
Course Requirements
*At least 9 credits overall MUST be upper division, 300 & 400 level
Required Foundational Courses
| LS 104 | Introduction to Global Health | 3 |
| BIOH 303 | Global Disease and Health Disparities | 3 |
| SPNS 101 | Elementary Spanish I ((or equivalent in another language)) | 3 |
| SPNS 250 | Spanish for Healthcare Professionals ((or equivalent in another language)) | 3 |
Elective Courses: 15 credits required
| Choose 6 credits from Biomedical Electives: | ||
| BIOB 100IN | Organism Function | 3 |
| BIOB 160 | Principles of Living Systems | 4 |
| BIOB 410 | Immunology | 3 |
| BIOB 499 | Senior Thesis/Capstone | 2 |
| BIOH 185 | Integrated Physiology I | 4 |
| BIOH 201 | Human Anatomy and Physiology I | 5 |
| BIOH 422 | Genes and Cancer | 3 |
| BIOH 445 | Introduction to Pharmacology | 3 |
| BIOM 210RN | Principles of Environmental Health Science | 3 |
| BIOM 250 | Microbiology for Health Sciences: Infectious Diseases | 3 |
| BIOM 400 | Medical Microbiology | 3 |
| BIOM 415 | Microbial Diversity, Ecology, and Evolution | 3 |
| BIOM 435 | Virology | 3 |
| BIOM 441 | Eukaryotic Pathogens | 4 |
| BIOM 460 | Infectious Diseases Ecology and Spillover | 3 |
| CHTH 440 | Principles Of Epidemiology | 3 |
| KIN 221 | Health Anatomy & Physiology | 3 |
| NUTR 221CS | Basic Human Nutrition | 3 |
| Choose 6 credits from Social/Economic Policy Electives: | ||
| AGBE 315 | Ag in a Global Context | 3 |
| AGSC 465R | Health, Agriculture, Poverty | 4 |
| ANTY 101D | Anthropology and the Human Experience | 3 |
| ANTY 225IS | Culture, Language, and Society | 3 |
| ANTY 327 | Medical Anthropology | 3 |
| CHTH 210 | Foundations in Community Health | 3 |
| ECNS 317 | Economic Development | 3 |
| HTH 455 | The Ethic of Care | 3 |
| NRSG 418 | Hlth Policy/Hlth Care Econ Cln | 2 |
| PSCI 423 | Politics of Development | 3 |
| PSCI 436 | Politics of Food & Hunger | 3 |
| PSYX 383 | Health Psychology | 3 |
| SOCI 370 | Sociology of Globalization | 3 |
| SOCI 380 | Sociology of Health & Medicine | 3 |
| SFBS 146 | Introduction to Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems | 3 |
| SFBS 451R | Sustainable Food Systems | 3 |
| Choose 3 credits from Cultural Electives: | ||
| BIOB 492 | Independent Study (Guided Undergrad Engagement or Study Abroad) | 1-3 |
| CHTH 428 | Health Disparities | 3 |
| GPHY 121D | Human Geography | 3 |
| GPHY 141D | Geography of World Regions | 3 |
| HSTR 160D | Modern World History | 4 |
| NASX 105D | Introduction to Native American Studies | 3 |
| NASX 415 | Native Food Systems | 3 |
| PHL 255D | Philosophy and Culture | 3 |
| PSCI 230D | Introduction to International Relations | 3 |
| RLST 100D | Intro to the Study of Religion | 3 |
| RLST 110D | 4 | |
| SOCI 374 | Sociology of Culture | 3 |
| SPNS 350 | US Latino Cultures | 3 |