GCH-Global and Community Health

Foundations for Global and Community Health is an interdisciplinary introduction to global and community health. It provides students with the foundational knowledge, vocabulary, and analytical tools to enter global health. It emphasizes the wide-ranging community meanings and contextual conditions shaping health from local to global scales. Co-taught by faculty from the natural sciences and social sciences, the course also introduces students to global and community health, highlighting opportunities for learning that involve collaboration and conversation between natural scientists and social scientists. (Formerly offered as POLI/ANTH/BIOL 89).

Takes as its topic the still-unfolding story of COVID-19, its historical precursors, evolving scientific and policy questions, and present global challenges. It invites students from across disciplines to examine the medical, cultural, and public health concepts necessary in a post-pandemic world, and to explore the vital importance of rhetoric, representation, and narrative in the cultural politics of COVID more generally. A project-based, collaborative approach guides hands-on investigations to help students become audiences and advocates for health initiatives worldwide.

Students conduct rigorous research on real world health challenges with a view to describing the associated problems accurately and recommending responses. All the work of research and writing is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary. Task Force members are comprised of seniors from both the B.A. and B.S. degrees in GCH. They work closely together under the guidance of the instructor who prepares them to collaborate effectively. The final report always includes writing from all the students in the team. Students are responsible for all of the associated editing, as well as a final presentation of the report to an external evaluator.

Focuses on enabling students to assess and communicate their learning in global and community health (GCH) using an iterative process of writing, review, and website development. The e-portfolio webpages students complete by the end of the course will together comprise their capstone "GCH e-Record" designed to communicate their disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning in their degree to a specific audience beyond the university. These written reflections, in turn, involve meta-learning about how expert knowledge moves between different communities, and about how audience expectations and writing conventions condition communications about health expertise in particular.

Provides an alternative way to satisfy the capstone requirements in place of GCH 190. Course is designed especially to serve the needs of students who do an individualized practical internship or community service project and who then want to reflect on its lessons and write it up as a form of academic research. To satisfy the DC requirements for the Global and Community Health B.A. degree, it is still necessary to also complete GCH 195. Thesis should be modeled after academic articles published in peer-reviewed journals and make a scholarly contribution based on original research and/or deep review of current literatures in global and community health. Prerequisite(s): GCH 1, and satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor and restricted to seniors majoring in global and community health. Please read the instructions for the senior thesis and secure the approval of GCH affiliate faculty mentor before enrolling.

For students who need an extra quarter, GCH 199B also provides 5 more credits in addition to GCH 199A while allowing them to complete their B.A. degree requirements. Provides an alternative way to satisfy the GCH capstone requirements in place of GCH 190. It is designed especially to serve the needs of students who do an individualized practical internship or community service project and who then want to reflect on its lessons and write it up as a form of academic research. To satisfy the DC requirements for the GCH B.A. degree, it is still necessary to complete GCH 195 as well as this Senior Thesis. An academic senior thesis should be modeled after academic articles published in peer-reviewed journals and make a scholarly contribution based on original research and/or deep review of current literatures in global and community health.