University of Maryland Graduate School

Global health as a field of study has emerged as a priority in the last 30 years. The global health field highlights the international dimension of global processes and current health issues, emphasizing a holistic understanding of each socio-cultural and environmental context. In addition, global health captures the need to work in collaboration, emphasizing a multisectoral and transdisciplinary approach to manage the transcultural and sometimes trans-bordering dimensions of worldwide health inequities. This introductory Global Health course provides students with a broad understanding of health and the social, political, cultural, behavioral, and economic forces that influence health access and health outcomes.  

This course applies the concepts, theories, and principles of the field of global health presented in the first course to the practical challenges facing global health professionals. Each student will select a specific global health priority for a given national or geo-politically defined population to examine over the duration of the course. The student’s selected case will then be their primary focus for applying needs assessment methodologies, including epidemiological methods, mapping local, national, and global policy processes, identifying strategies for building infrastructure and workforce capacity, analyzing financial opportunities and limitations, and assessing  the impact of macro changes in the global economy, political environment, and human rights and legal systems. Each student will complete a final summary project report that will summarize findings regarding scope, options, outcomes, and a recommended action plan for improving the health status of the population group they have studied. 

This course increases students’ knowledge of how to apply different theories and intervention strategies to the health assessment and response to mass violence and disaster.  Crisis theory, used to guide crisis intervention and response to traumatic events, in addition to prevention and preparedness among diverse groups and communities, will be studied.  Multiple conceptualizations of exposure to human-made and natural disaster will be discussed, ranging from acute to chronic, complex and long-term health and trauma reactions.  The class will explore evidence-based interventions, controversies and emerging areas of practice with various populations who experience trauma across multiple settings.  Larger social, cultural, and political forces will be considered with regard to how they influence exposure, response and recovery from traumatic events. 

A comprehensive multidisciplinary examination of the complex issues related to women and children’s health across the globe, based on the World Health Organization’s 2007 Framework for Action for strengthening health systems and the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Topics include biological and medical issues, reproductive health, violence against women and children and its impact on health, infectious and chronic disease, and the relationship of environmental and social issues to health. Analysis also covers current national, regional, and global trends; program and policy responses to these trends; and prospects for the future.