GIST 5220 - Global Health II

Crosslisted: Also listed as PBHL 5020

This interdisciplinary course is designed for students to deepen their understanding of global health equity by continuing to investigate what the field of global health may include, how global health problems are defined and constructed, and how global health interventions play out in expected and unexpected ways. Our core text will be Turning the World Upside Down – global health in a time of pandemics, climate change, and political turmoil. This guide will take us step-by-step through the following themes: a) an overview and critique of systems of healthcare, globally, and the uneven flow of health ideas, goods, services, and personnel; b) unfair trade typically exports health workers from global South to global North contexts (or from lower-income to higher-income countries) and creates what has been referred to as a “brain drain”; c) unfair trade also results in low-income countries importing ideas and ideologies from global North foreign aid bureaucracies, donor agencies, Western NGOs, and so forth – ideas that are often culturally inappropriate and irrelevant to the local context, and often in exchange for financial assistance; d) concrete strategies for turning these trends on their head. Examining efforts to reverse the trend opens the door to learning from low- and middle-income countries; studying ways in which global health equity respects and embraces local knowledge, practical knowledge, community-based care, social prescribing, and value-based healthcare (defined as the “equitable, sustainable and transparent use of the available resources to achieve better outcomes and experiences for every person”). Slogans for this approach include “the primary diagnosis is social” and “health is made at home; hospitals are for repairs.” As part of this revitalized vision of health creation, health professionals are understood as agents of change. The very notion of health shifts away from the “absence of disease” toward the “ability of individuals and communities to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges.” Principles of self-determination and human flourishing are wed to global sustainability development goals focused on planetary health. Whereas Global Health I is research and writing intensive, culminating in a substantive term paper, Global Health II is speaking and discussion intensive – aimed at encouraging vibrant dialogue and verbal exchange.

Prerequisite: GIST 3220 or PBHL 3020, grade of C- or higher

Credits: 4