Applicable for the 2024-2025 academic year.

The Global Health Minor draws on courses from across the college to both interrogate and inform our understanding and approaches to global public health issues. The minor provides opportunities to take relevant courses in both the social and natural sciences while grounding those perspectives in a core set of courses on global public health and medicine.

Minor Requirements

Six credits in total required

The courses listed for each category are not to be considered exhaustive. Students interested in the Global Health Minor are encouraged to contact the director of the minor early in their process as new course offerings are published on Banner each year in the spring and course not listed below may count toward the minor.

Category A: Core Courses in Global Public Health (at least 2 credits)

• AN235 Global Health: Biosocial Perspectives
• AN308 Topics in Anthropology: Evolutionary Medicine
• AN330 Evolutionary Medicine
• PS366 Politics of Global Health
• SO246 Sociology of Health and Medicine
• SO250 Global Health and Gender
• SO320 Mental Health Policy
• SO390 Advanced Topics: Global Mental Health Policy
• Other course(s) as appropriate

Category B: Courses in Global Inequality and Power (at least 1 credit)

• EC275/PS375 Introduction to International Political Economy
• SO116 Global Inequality
• SO247 Development and Social Change in the Global South
• SO290 Advanced Topics: Gender and Development
• PS253 Introduction to International Development
• Other course(s) as appropriate

Category C: Natural Science Perspectives (at least 1 credit)

• BE107 Biology of Microbes
• BE341 Parasitology (.5 credit)
• HK125 Introduction to Human Nutrition
• MA256 Mathematical Models in Biology
• MB131 Introduction to Molecular and Cellular Biology
• MB103 Epidemic & Infectious Disease (.5 units)
• MB130 Viruses: The Biology and Mathematical Modeling of Epidemics (2 units)
• MB301 Immunology
• MB321 Microbiology: Cells, Molecules, and Infection
• MB325 Molecular and Cellular Immunology
• MB410 Molecular and Cellular Virology
• Other course(s) as appropriate

Students who study abroad in a designated semester program that has a focus on public health may contribute up to 2 credits toward the minor, pending approval by the minor advisor.

The Integrative Experience

Students must have completed at least four credits in the minor to undertake the integrative experience. The integrative experience may take several forms, including the following. 

1. An approved thesis or tutorial paper within their major.
2. The student may take one of several integrative courses in the minor, with the stipulation that they be a declared minor at the time and consult with the director of the Global Health Minor. This would entail a significant piece of work for that course, such as a major 25+ page research paper.
3. In lieu of the prior options, the student may complete an approved global health internship that is the equivalent of a full-time internship of at least four weeks in length, and one that results in a final paper. Specific internship and paper requirements to be determined by faculty directors.
4. If options one through three do not apply, the student can apply to complete an independent study with a faculty member during senior year.

In addition to the above requirements, it is strongly recommended that students pursue at least one block in statistics (either MA117 Probability and Statistics or a statistics course within their major) and/or blocks that include Geographic Information System training (e.g., SO246 or EV127 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems). These courses do not count toward the minor, however.