MPH Requirements, as with all concentrations, global health students must complete the MPH degree requirements including 5 credits of core courses, 1 credit for general requirements, and 1 credit for the Applied Learning Experience.
Concentration-Specific Requirements
In addition to the MPH core courses and other requirements, students pursuing this concentration must take the Global Health required courses listed here plus one additional elective that is from the approved list for Global Health Concentrators that is provided below. Alternatively, a student can petition for approval to take another Global Health-relevant course as their concentration elective if approved by the Concentration Leader.
Global Health Required Courses
MPH244 Research Methods in Global Health (Spring - 1 Credit) The globalization of health information is growing exponentially, although with different degrees of interpretability and usefulness. It is imperative for advancing the global health research agenda to gather, interpret and apply high-quality global health research data in a timely manner. The course on Research Methods in Global Health is focused on providing students with knowledge, critical appraisal skills, and data management and analysis techniques that will let them function successfully as global health researchers. Prerequisite: MPH 205 Biostatistics or MPH 259 Fundamentals of Biostatistics
MPH247 Global Health Priorities & Approaches (Spring - 1 Credit) This course examines current and emerging health issues in developing and industrialized countries. Students learn to define the nature, determinants, and impact of selected health problems in selected countries and describe the pattern of morbidity and mortality at country level and by geographic region. Students are introduced to data sources and health service delivery. Considerations at the local, national, and regional levels, including sources of funding, the role of culture in health and disease, and the global impact of health, are explored.
MPH 248 Introduction to Global Health & Development (Fall - 1 Credit) This course introduces students to the major issues in global health and development. It is designed as the introductory course in a sequence of courses in the Global Health concentration. A number of high-priority global health topics will be covered in some detail. The objective is to ensure that students pursuing an MPH with a global health concentration are aware of most major global health issues within the first semester of their course of studies. This course will provide students with the background that they need to discern their own specific area of interest in Global Health and to succeed in subsequent courses. The focus in this course is on the health of people in low- and middle-income countries. The course covers the main principles of global health along with additional topics such as ethics and human rights, socioeconomic status and health, culture and health, infectious and noncommunicable diseases, and the use of social enterprise to improve health. This course is complemented by MPH-247, “Global Health Priorities and Approaches”.
Global Health Elective Courses and Descriptions
School of Medicine: Public Health
MPH 224 Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Fall Semester) This course is designed to introduce students to key concepts that relate to the epidemiology of infectious diseases from a global perspective. The prerequisite background is the successful completion of a core epidemiology course, or its equivalent as judged by the usual mechanisms (instructor approval and the approval of the program). The course does not presuppose a detailed knowledge of human biology or microbiology, although they are useful background subjects to be acquainted with. Although we will discuss and use a number of sophisticated concepts that are advances beyond the ones in an introductory course, this course does not presuppose advanced mathematical skills beyond the level of simple algebra. Numerous examples are taken from diseases prevalent in the developing world, and the course focuses on infectious diseases of global public health importance. Prerequisite: core epidemiology course.
MPH 241 Biology of Water and Health (Fall Semester) Emphasis is placed on participants understanding the biology of water and health. Participant will demonstrate knowledge of the central role of water in health, including adequate hydration. Detailed coverage of selected prototypic or model disease which include Schistosomiasis, Cryptosporidiosis, cholera, and others. Participant will become familiar with widespread chemical agents and their interactions with pathogens. Participants will demonstrate a familiarity with the appropriate methods of assessing the occurrence of water borne disease. Participants will become knowledgeable about the principal methods of controlling the propagation of water-born disease. Participants will become knowledgeable social and institutional factors influencing sanitation and water treatment decision and the subsequent impacts on a variety of health indices.
MPH0542 Race, Culture and Ethnicity (Every Other Fall – 1 credit) This course examines the ideological, institutional, social, and professional dimensions of culture (including class, gender and sexual orientation as facets of group and personal identity), race and ethnicity, and their effects on health status, research, planning and service delivery. The course will also explore the role of history, power, and the economy as they relate to societal inequality among diverse cultural groups, and their influence on the current policies, institutional arrangements, service delivery models, and professional practices in health services. Cultural competency will be discussed, and more appropriate methods of practice will be analyzed.
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Electives:
NUTR 210 Survey Research in Nutrition Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 216 Management, Planning, and Control of Nutrition and Health Programs and Organizations Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 217 Seminar on Monitoring and Evaluation of Nutrition Projects Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 222 (Cross-listed at Fletcher School DHP D232)
Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 227 International Nutrition Programs Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 229 (Cross-listed at Fletcher School DHP D230) Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 302 Risks and Disasters: Predicting and Managing Catastrophes Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 304 Nutrition, Food Security and Development Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 305 Nutritional Epidemiology Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 308 (Cross-listed at Fletcher School DHP D237) Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 320 Impact of Nutrition on the Immune System and Related Diseases Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
NUTR 324 Humanitarian Studies in the Field Please see http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/courses for description, prerequisites and semester offered.
DHP P222 Development Aid in Practice (Fall Semester) This course is an overview of the operational and professional world of development. Students will understand key terms and concepts used in the practice of development aid as well as the policy and operational debates in the development world. This course addresses the issues now being discussed and implemented in the development community. It is designed along four major themes. 1) Concepts in the practice of development 2) Project design 3) A critical review of the limits of aid practices in development - from the perspective of 'implementing' institutions and agencies 4) What works and a glimpse into the future.
DHP P224 Cultural Values and Development (Fall & Spring Semesters) This multidisciplinary seminar will consider the extent to which cultural values and attitudes influence the political, economic, and social evolution of nations and ethnic groups. Theories that emphasize other factors, for example geography and dependency, will also be discussed. Typologies of values and attitudes that facilitate or impede progress will be examined and related to the experience of a range of countries. The seminal ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville, who emphasized the link between cultural values and democracy, and Max Weber, who analyzed the link between culture and capitalism, will be reviewed, as will the work of several writers who have elaborated on their insights, including Edward Banfield's study of southern Italian villages, Gunnar Myrdal's analysis of India, and Carlos Rangel's analysis of Latin America. The seminar will then address the appropriateness and feasibility of promoting cultural change and some specific ways in which progressive values might be reinforced. (No entry requirements)
DHP D238 (Cross-listed as Friedman School NUTR 279) Globalization, Development and Humanitarianism: Ethics and Personal Transformation (Fall Semester) Fundamental economic, political, cultural and social transitions are reshaping the world. Traditional relief and development concepts are being challenged. In the face of this global change, individuals need the academic frameworks to allow for analysis and flexible understanding of world trends and events. Individuals must also wrestle with their own personal values and transformations. The seminar will look at some key ethical frameworks for individual action. It will explore the concepts of globalization, development and humanitarian action. The seminar will confront students with the dilemmas and contradictions that they will face in development and humanitarian work. The seminar will consider ethical and moral values that support humanitarian and developmental interventions as well as the ethical implications that are inherent in the choice between rights and responsibilities, freedom and order and war and peace. Students will analyze the role of ethics in a globalized world. Pre-requisites: Open to students who have completed at least one humanitarian aid course and at least one development course or by the approval of the instructor.
DHP P297 African Communities in Crisis: Perspectives of War and Its Aftermath (Spring Semester) The aim of this seminar is to provide students with an enhanced understanding of African conflicts through an extensive examination of communities engulfed by warfare. The seminar will draw on a variety of sources, all of which aim to reveal aspects of how warfare and communities in Africa intersect. The initial part of the seminar aims to orient students to the diversity of views of warfare. The second part plunges into the ambiguities, confusions, and surprises of civilian involvement in African warfare. Part three delves into the perspectives and views of particular authors who have researched community perspectives and experiences of war and its aftermath in Africa.
EIB E241 Micro Development Economics: Poverty Reduction Policy Analysis for Developing Countries (Spring Semester) This course develops a systematic approach to analyzing the costs and benefits of -- and brainstorming about ways to improve - policies that might be used to reduce poverty in developing countries. Policies range from short-run attempts to use food subsidies and cash transfers to raise the consumption levels of the poor, to infrastructure development and micro finance projects, to long-run investments in education and health. They also range from countrywide policies implemented by central governments to small-scale projects implemented by NGOs. We will use the framework of economic policy analysis to identify the potential costs and benefits of various poverty reduction efforts, and to understand how the specifics of program design might affect those costs and benefits. Because the actual importance of the costs and benefits may differ from place to place and from year to year, we also review what is known from empirical research about the sizes of the costs and benefits in various contexts, and identify basic information that is useful when attempting to predict the likely desirability of policies in specific circumstances. Emphasis is on development of a rigorous and systematic approach to the analysis of poverty reduction efforts, and on the effective communication of the results of such analysis.
ILO L240 Legal and Institutional Aspects of International Trade (Fall Semester) This course examines the law of international trade in goods and services, focusing principally on the law of the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as well as on the foreign trade law of the United States. This specialized sector of international law includes particular negotiation and dispute settlement processes, as well as particular types of rules restraining national restrictions on trade. These rules address tariff and non-tariff barriers, discrimination, regionalism, anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties and safeguards measures. This course will pay particular attention to how this legal system manages the relationship between trade and other regulatory areas or social values, such as environmental protection, health and other product standards, human rights, intellectual property protection and other facets of globalization. School of Arts and Sciences
BIO 107 (Cross-listed at Fletcher School DHP P216) Humanitarian Policy and Public Health (Fall Semester) Introduction to Humanitarian policy and practice in complex emergencies with particular reference to health. Issues in environmental health, nutrition and program design are examined from public health and anthropological perspectives. Also covered are anthropological and participatory tools of investigation and analysis applicable to humanitarian emergency settings.
BIO 142 Population and Community Ecology (Fall Semester) Introduction to population dynamics, species interactions and community structure. Topics include population structure and growth, predator-prey interactions, competition and mutualism, adaptations to the physical environment, patterns and processes governing the world's biomes.
BIO 189 Social Capital and Mental Health (Fall Semester) This course is designed to engage upper-level undergraduate students in analysis of existing and emerging evidence of the links between social capital and health, particularly mental well being. Authoritative materials from the disciplines of epidemiology, psychiatry, anthropology/sociology as well as health policy and humanitarian assistance are examined with the aim of identifying measures of social capital and health status internationally.
CH 188 Globalization and Health (Spring Semester) This seminar on Globalization and Health is organized in three parts. First, we will read both the current and historical theory on what globalization is and how it may affect the world. We will examine the writings of the philosopher Immanuel Kant as well as the current debates of Rodrick, Sen, Stiglitz and others. Our focus will be on the international community and the globalization process affecting it. In the second part of the seminar, we will focus on issues of health in the world and how globalization could make things better, or make things worse. We will look at the growing problems of tobacco, obesity and consumption in the developing world and how globalization is related. In the third part of the seminar, we will seek to understand how the effects of globalization on health play out in the context of formal global community and the growing global civil society. We will examine the role of the state, the role of markets, and the role of international grass-roots movements in advocating for health and affecting health policy throughout the world.
PS 169 International Organization (Fall Semester) This course examines the role of international organizations in the modern world. Among the puzzles we will explore are how and why they are created? What purpose they serve and in whose interests? We will also consider how they adapt over time. We will address these questions by focusing on three broad areas. The first area of interest is the role of international organizations in promoting and maintaining international security. The comparative experiences of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will be explored. The second are of interest lies in organizations designed to regulate and promote economic growth and development. The central organizations under study here will be the so-called Bretton Wood's institutions, namely the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade// the World Trade Organization. As part of this process, we will take a closer look at the process of globalization and how such organizations are changing during an era of increased economic interdependence. The third area of interest concerns regional attempts at cooperation. Here we will explore the most successful and ambitious attempts at regional cooperation in history, the creation and development of the European Union. The course begins, however, with an overview of some of the dominant theoretical explanations for how and why states enter into such organizations. These theories will be used in the subsequent sections to help us better understand the development and role of each organization.
UEP 284 Developing Sustainable Communities (Spring Semester) This course will explore the many challenges of achieving sustainable development through a coherent and thought-provoking overview of moves towards developing sustainable communities. The course will focus on improving the quality of people's lives, on disinvested communities and on the inequitable distribution of income, wealth and environmental hazards. It will investigate the theory of sustainable development and ask about the principles, tools and techniques and in what contexts we can move towards the ecological integrity, economic security, empowerment, responsibility and social well being characteristic of sustainable communities. Case studies will be drawn from around the world.
PHIL 141 Global Justice (Spring Semester) Questions of justice in a global context, while always significant, recently have taken on additional urgency from a U.S. perspective. This course will survey contemporary writings in political philosophy, both theoretical and practical, that are oriented to the international arena. Topics will include democracy, community, human rights, cultural pluralism, and war and violence. Such topics will be framed by debate surrounding moral universalism versus partiality for family and friends, religious or ethnic group, or nation. Readings will include Rawls, Walzer, Singer, Ignatieff, Fanon, and others.