Education

How do you come up with an idea for a useful research project in a low-resource setting? How do you develop a research question, prepare a concept note, and get your project funded? How do you manage complex cultural situations, unexpected problems, and personnel in the field? How do you create a sampling strategy, select a study design, and ensure ethical conduct with human subjects? This course takes students through the process of health research in under-resourced countries from the development of the initial research question and literature review to securing support and providing detailed planning for field work. Students develop a concept note to support a funding proposal addressing a research question of their choosing, while receiving weekly feedback. This course is aimed at graduate students interested in global health research, although students of all disciplines interested in practical methods for research are welcome. Undergraduates who have completed 85 units or more may enroll with instructor consent. Sign up for 1 unit credit to audit class sessions or 3 units to both participate in classes and develop a concept note.

This course undertakes a critical assessment of how different academic disciplines frame global health problems and recommend pathways toward improvements.  It focuses on evaluating examples of different theories of change in specific global health interventions and analyzing both their successes and failures.  Open to graduate students studying in any discipline whose research work or interest engages global health. Upper-class undergraduates who have completed at least one of the prerequisite courses and who are willing to commit to the preparatory time required by a graduate level seminar class are welcome.  Prerequisites: ECON118, CEE 265D, HUMBIO 129S or HUMBIO 124C.

For too long, societies have treated nature as an inexhaustible resource. As a result, humanity faces a health crisis of planetary dimensions. Unsustainable food systems, global warming, biodiversity loss, pollution, and changing disease ecology are impacting both human lives and the natural systems that support them. Those least responsible for these crises are hit worst and first. The field of human and planetary health seeks solutions that sustain nature while supporting human health. This course highlights the complex interconnections between environment and health and demonstrates how an interdisciplinary, multisectoral approach and systems thinking can help us to find a path forward. Through lectures, discussions, and interactive exercises, students will learn and write about large-scale problems, priority areas of action, and levers for impact. All students will join a weekly section and work through a multi-part assignment to produce a policy brief addressing a human and planetary health challenge. The course is appropriate for students at all levels and from all disciplines.

99.9% of all species that have ever inhabited Earth are now extinct, including 12 species of the genus Homo. The threat of human extinction is global, and it is driven by social, economic, technological and political forces operating at global scales. This course will explore several plausible scenarios by which human extinction (or near-extinction) could occur within the next 100 years. In this course, we will study the psychological, social, political, economic and epistemological barriers that frequently derail efforts to avert these catastrophes. We will explore diverse approaches to understanding these risks, strategies that could reduce them, and better ways to think and act as we move into an uncertain future. Students will engage these issues through academic reading, apocalyptic fiction, group discussion and writing. We will consider the role of human agency in the evolution of these risks and their prevention, and our responsibilities as 21st-century citizens.