New and Updated Course Descriptions

HEG 215 - Global Health and Culture

3 Credits

Global Health is emerging as a critical driver of world change and global sustainable development. This course explores the biosocial theoretical concepts and the historical contexts that are contributors to this shift and are influencing the establishment of global health as a stand alone discipline of study. This course encourages cultural sensitivity and global citizenship. It focuses on challenging embedded assumptions about what actually supports good health and humane healthcare and what actually causes poor health and disease in various cultures around the world. Topics include: history of 19th and 20th century medicine, population health, racism, WHO global regions, UN Sustainable Goals, Global Burden of Disease, health disparities, mental health, indigenous cultures, cultural healing practices and beliefs, contagious diseases, obesity, human rights, natural and complex human disasters

New SUNY General Education:
SUNY - Civic Discourse Competency
SUNY - World History and Global Awareness

MCC General Education: MCC-GLO - Global Understanding (MGLO), MCC-SSD - Social Science and Diversity (MSSD), MCC-HW - Health and Wellness (MHW)

Course Learning Outcomes
1.Utilize accurate and discipline specific vocabulary to describe Global Health as a specialized arena within public health and medicine.
2.Explain the distinctions between qualitative and quantitative research methods and their applications in healthcare and cultural studies.
3.Discuss how historical forces shape the social and structural determinants of health within a selected WHO region.
4.Apply the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to analyze and interpret global cultural health challenges.
5.Analyze how cultural vulnerability and cultural resilience to disease can operate simultaneously within the same population or community.
6.Explain how multiple viewpoints, cultural beliefs, values, new information, and practices influence global health systems and human health outcomes.
7.Engage in dialogue to evaluate, advocate or practice constructive dissent related to global health and cultural issues, demonstrating the ability to engage with diverse perspectives.

Course Offered Fall, Spring