Facilitator: Craig Stephens, Biology; Director, Public Health Program
This Pathway will explore human health and the biological, environmental, psychological, and social factors that impact it, with particular attention to global issues, such as infectious disease, chronic disease, healthcare, mental health, pollution and environmental degradation, agriculture and nutrition, and poverty and social inequalities that affect human well-being. All courses included in this Pathway will include discussion of the social context of health issues, and issues germane to resource-poor regions of the world.
Why have we chosen this focus? Because good health is fundamental to human well-being, a basic understanding of the human body and what we can do to maintain its proper functioning is a perfectly reasonable part of a holistic liberal education. But in the complex world we live in, the study of human health encompasses far more than simply the normal functioning of our bodies. Indeed, most of humanity enjoys nothing like the excellent health that citizens of wealthy nations often take for granted.
Courses addressing the broad topic of global health necessarily include issues of social justice. Many global public health problems are inextricably linked to poverty and marginalization, which aren't unique to the developing world. Indeed, people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder in the U.S. have the highest rates of AIDS and tuberculosis, cancer, obesity, asthma, and psychological stress, and the least access to quality medical care. How a wealthy country like the U.S. deals with such gross inequality raises fundamental questions of fairness and justice. These are issues Santa Clara students should be grappling with during the course of their education!
Associated Courses
Anthropology
ANTH 133 Human Nutrition and Culture
ANTH 134 Health, Disease, and Culture
ANTH 135 Human Development and Sexuality
ANTH 140 Food, Culture, and the Environment
Biology
BIOL 2 Human Health and Disease (discontinued spring 2012 - see PHSC 1)
BIOL 5 Endangered Ecosystems L&L
BIOL 28 Human Sexuality (discontinued spring 2012 - see PHSC 28)
* BIOL 111 Parasitology
* BIOL 113 Microbiology L&L
* BIOL 116 Medical Microbiology
* BIOL 127 Drugs & Toxins in Human Biology (discontinued Spring 2012)
* BIOL 131 Agroecology L & L
* BIOL 145 Virology
* BIOL 159 Plagues in the Age of Insects
* BIOL 171 Social and Ethical Dimensions of Biotechnology
* BIOL 179 Cancer Biology
Chemistry
CHEM 1 Chemistry and the Environment
Communication
* COMM 156A Health Communication
* COMM 164A Race, Gender, and Public Health
Economics
ECON 101 Resources, Food, and the Environment
* ECON 135 Gender Issues in the Developing World
* ECON 160 The Economics of Poverty and Inequality
Environmental Studies
ENVS 21 Introduction to Environmental Science
ENVS 146 Agriculture, Environment, and Development: Latin America
ENVS 147 International Environment and Development
ENVS 155 Environmental and Food Justice
Ethnic Studies
ETHN 156 Environmental Racism, Gender, and Justice
History
HIST 106 You Are What You Eat: The History of Foods, Drugs, and Medicine
HIST 123 History of Plagues, Epidemics, and Infections
Psychology
* PSYC 117EL Health Psychology-ELSJ
* PSYC 167 Psychopharmacology (discontinued Spring 2012)
Public Health
PHSC 1 Human Health and Disease
PHSC 28 Human Sexuality
PHSC 31 Community Health
* PHSC 124 Health Consequences of Western Lifestyles
PHSC 142 Environment and Health
PHSC 190 Public Health Capstone – Global Health Issues
Religious Studies
* TESP 46 Faith, Justice, & Poverty
* TESP 62 Medical Ethics in Christian Perspective (discontinued Spring 2012)
* TESP 156 Christian Ethics and HIV/AIDS
* TESP 173 Religion, Science, and the Environment
Sociology
SOCI 134 Globalization and Inequality
SOCI 138 Populations of India, China & the U.S.
SOCI 172 Management of Health Care Organizations
* Indicates Course Has Prerequisites
