Macquarie University

Global Health - ANTH832

Global health recognizes a holistic understanding of health that transcends borders and encompasses the links and transnational movements of people, materials and ideas. This class offers a framework for understanding the complex ways health and disease intersect within a range of global contexts, institutions and practices. In order to affect change at the individual, community and global levels, we need to appreciate how human biology and health are shaped by the larger contexts in which they are embedded and the dynamic and uneven circulation of resources, technology, culture, values and people. In this class, we will examine the role of social, political-economic and environmental forces that shape patterns and the distribution of disease and health across communities and take a critical perspective when examining the underlying value systems in biomedical science, policy, health interventions, and global health practice. Particular topics include health determinants, measurements and trends; key actors in global health efforts; women's and children's health; communicable and non-communicable diseases; global mental health; nutrition; pharmaceuticals; disasters and humanitarian emergencies; science, technology and global health; and, health system design and evaluation.