Academic Programs Community and Global Health Macalester College

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Community and Global Health



Core Courses

  • Biology 116: Community and Global Health: Biological Paradigms
  • Anthropology 239: Medical Anthropology
  • Geography 256: Medical Geograhy: The Geography of Health and Health Care
  • Math 108: Quantitative thinking for policy analysis: Epidemiology
  • Philosophy 227: Bioethics
  • Philosophy 294: Human Rights and Health Care
  • Psychology 380: Community Psychology
  • Political Science 205: Politics and Policy-making: Government and Medicine

Structure of the Concentration

1. Six courses as follows. Courses must be drawn from at least two different divisions, no more than two courses can be drawn from any one department, and at least three of the courses must be at the 200-level or above. With the permission of the Director or Associate Director, a limited number of concentration courses may be taken at another institution or abroad. Students are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of a Steering Committee member in selecting a coherent set of courses that meet their educational goals and complement their major.

A. At least one course that is primarily about ways of understanding the health of human and/or animal populations. Students are encouraged to take more than one course in this category.

  • Biology 194: Community and Global Health: Biological Paradigms
  • Anthropology 239: Medical Anthropology
  • Geography 256: Medical Geography: The Geography of Health and Health Care
  • Philosophy 227: Bioethics
  • Philosophy 294: Human Rights and Health Care
  • Psychology 380: Community Psychology
  • Political Science 205: Politics and policy-making: Government and Medicine

B. A course on the methodologies of public health

  • Math 108: Quantitative thinking for policy analysis: Epidemiology

C. Courses that provide rich examples, background knowledge or skills, or analytical frameworks that enrich the understanding of population health. Courses in this category do not necessarily focus directly on human population health. In consultation with a Steering Committee member, students may propose to meet their concentration objectives by taking other courses.

Methods courses:
Please note that no more than one course from this subset can be applied to the concentration.

  • Anthropology 230: Ethnographic Interviewing
  • Economics 381: Introduction to Econometrics
  • Geography 225: Introduction to GIS
  • Geography 377: Qualitative research methods in Geography
  • Math 153: Data analysis and statistics
  • Math 155: Introduction to statistical modeling
  • Math 253: Advanced multivariate statistics
  • Political Science 269: Empirical research methods
  • Psychology 201: Research in Psychology I
  • Sociology 269: Science and social inquiry

Courses about health (but not necessarily population health):

  • Anthropology 380: Advanced Medical Anthropology
  • Anthropology 394: Emerging Infectious Diseases
  • Biology 117: Women, Health and Reproduction
  • Biology 355: Virology
  • Biology 357: Immunology
  • Biology 358: Microbiology
  • Geography 258: Geography of Environmental Hazards
  • History 294: Black Death
  • History 350: Race, Gender and Society
  • Psychology 182: Drugs and Society
  • Psychology 372: Health Psychology
  • WGSS: Global AIDS: History, Politics and Culture (course will likely not be offered again)

Courses with substantial examples drawn from population health or with a sustained health focus

This subset includes courses that have broader goals but choose, for a semester, to focus those goals on population health. The Steering Committee will post a list of courses in this category each semester before students register for the following semester. Although the Steering Committee will seek to be comprehensive in exploring courses that fit within this list, we welcome input from students about courses about which we may not be aware.

2. A substantial project focusing on the health of human populations. Normally, this requirement will be fulfilled through A) a civic engagement experience of no less than 75 hours or B) an advanced research project resulting in a major paper. Civic engagement experiences can be arranged in organizations in the Twin Cities, in a different US location, or abroad. They can be taken for academic credit as an internship or may be a paid or unpaid volunteer position during the academic year, winter break, or summer. Such experiences must include a reflection component and site supervisor evaluations. Advanced research projects may be completed for academic credit in courses, independent studies, or capstone programs within the student’s major or may be non-credit bearing work in the summer, winter break, or the academic year conducted under the supervision of a faculty member. The scope of the project will typically be equivalent to or greater than the work expected for two-credit independent studies and internships. Projects should be selected and developed in consultation with a Steering Committee member as part of a coherent plan and must be approved by the Director or Associate Director. Criteria for evaluating whether a project may count towards this requirement will be a) the extent to which the project involves significant engagement with key issues in population health; and b) the quality of the student’s work as reflected in their written work about the project and, where relevant, site supervisor evaluations. Students will present their projects in the culminating seminar (see below).

3. The Seminar in Community and Global Health. A one-credit culminating seminar, meeting weekly for one hour in the spring term, in which issues in community and global health are discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to sponsoring lectures by notable public health professionals, the seminar will also provide opportunities for students to share the work they have done on their CGH project (see item 2 above). Typically, this seminar will be taken in the student’s senior year.


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