Electives

CDE 522, The Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food
Faculty: Kelly Brownell
When: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00 – 2:15PM

A study of eating as it affects the health and well-being of every human. Topics include taste preferences, food aversions, the regulation of hunger and satiety, food as comfort and friendship, eating as social ritual, and social norms of blame for food problems; the politics of food, including issues such as sustainable agriculture, organic farming, genetically modified foods, nutrition policy, and the influence of food and agriculture industries; food problems such as malnutrition, eating disorders, and the global obesity epidemic; the impact of food advertising aimed at children, poverty and food, and how each individual's eating is affected by the modern environment.

CDE 533, Topics in Perinatal Epidemiology
Faculty: Kathleen Belanger, Adrienne Ettinger 
When: Tuesdays, 1:00 – 2:50PM

Pregnancy, delivery, and reproduction provide the course's organizing focus. The current perinatal epidemiologic literature is critically reviewed from a methodological perspective. Subjects studied include birth control, infertility, miscarriage, fetal growth retardation, preterm labor and delivery, aspects of prenatal care, congenital malformations, perinatal risks for cancer and other chronic diseases, SIDS, and infant mortality. Students actively participate in a seminar format and develop an understanding of what evidence is needed to establish causal relationships in this specialty. Implications of research findings for public health policy, individual decision making, and future studies are considered.

CDE 574, Developing a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Intervention
Faculty: Trace Kershaw
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 - 2:20PM

The primary objective of the course is to gain experience in intervention research by developing a health promotion and disease prevention intervention. Students choose a health problem (e.g., physical inactivity, smoking, HIV risk) and develop an intervention focused on favorably changing the determinants and behavior that influence the health problem. The course emphasizes transferring concepts from the abstract to the concrete. Students develop an intervention manual consisting of actual intervention materials, and methods that specifically outline how the intervention will be designed, conducted, evaluated, and disseminated. Throughout the course, students participate in a peer review process to evaluate and give feedback for each section of the intervention manual.

Prerequisite: CDE 572a.

CDE 575, Religion, Health, and Society
Faculty: Peter Van Ness 
When: Tuesdays, 10:00 - 11.50AM

The course examines the impact of various dimensions of religiousness on mortality and health status, giving special attention to the relation between religion and other social factors such as age, gender, race, and class. Discussion focuses on the public health implications of the epidemiological findings including the nature and significance of faith-based programs serving health needs. Special attention is given to studies drawn from religiously diverse populations. Offered every other year.

EMD 583, Public Health Surveillance
Faculty: Amanda Durante 

This course is intended to provide students with a strong foundation in public health surveillance of both infectious and noninfectious disease. The course teaches the theory and practice of surveillance, supported by many examples of surveillance systems from the developing world. The class builds on and reinforces basic epidemiological concepts. Students are given the opportunity to design and evaluate a surveillance system.

EMD 518, Principles of Infectious Diseases II
Faculty: James Childs 
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 – 11:20PM

This course explores the epidemiology and biology of infectious agents and the diseases they cause. Through a theme-based, integrated approach, students learn about the epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and control of bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotic parasites of public health importance. Emphasis is placed on epidemiological methods, routes of transmission, host-pathogen interactions, and mechanisms of virulence. The course also teaches skills for understanding and evaluating the published literature, specifically through class discussions and oral presentations of assigned readings by students. The course builds upon concepts covered in EMD 518a and introduces new topics such as infectious causes of chronic diseases; and vector-borne, zoonotic, and emerging pathogens.

BENG 405, Biotechnology and the Developing World
Faculty: Anjelica Gonzalez 
When: Thursdays, 1.00 - 2.15PM

Study of technological advances that have global health applications. Ways in which biotechnology has enhanced quality of life in the developing world. The challenges of implementing relevant technologies in resource-limited environments, including technical, practical, social, and ethical aspects.

Prerequisites: MCDB <120>, or BIOL 101 and 102

BENG 411/ENAS 711, Biomedical Microtechnology and Nanotechnology
Faculty: Rong Fan 
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 - 11.20AM

Principles and applications of micro- and nanotechnologies for biomedicine. Approaches to fabricating micro- and nanostructures. Fluid mechanics, electrokinetics, and molecular transport in microfluidic systems. Integrated biosensors and microTAS for laboratory medicine and point-of-care uses. High-content technologies, including DNA, protein microarrays, and cell-based assays for differential diagnosis and disease stratification. Emerging nanobiotechnology for systems medicine.

Prerequisites: CHEM 112, 114, or 118, and ENAS 194.

MBIO 547, Vaccines: Concepts in Biology
Faculty: Diane McMahon-Pratt 

When: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:00 - 11:20AM

Vaccines are one of the major public health preventive approaches for disease control. However, the underlying biological mechanisms are still being explored, with the purpose of designing better and more efficacious vaccines. Vaccine-preventable diseases now include many infectious diseases as well as cancer. This course briefly reviews the immunological basis of immunity to infection and disease. Topics then include the basic science underlying vaccine development, current vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as vaccines under development.

Prerequisites: immunology and microbiology.

HLTH 230, Global Health: Challenges and Responses
Faculty: Richard Skolnik 
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 - 2:15PM

Overview of the determinants of health and how health status is measured, with emphasis on low- and middle-income countries. The burden of disease, including who is most affected by different diseases and risk factors; cost-effective measures for addressing the problem. The health of the poor, equity and inequality, and the relationship between health and development.

Not open to freshmen except by permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 40.

HLTH 471, Directed Independent Research
Faculty: Kristina Talbert-Slagle 
When: Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:20PM

Personalized guidance for conducting independent research projects in global health. Students are directed through the process of developing, funding, implementing, and publishing their research. Weekly individual meetings with instructor to discuss progress; opportunities to report on projects; lectures by the instructor and by guest speakers. Content tailored to students' research and learning needs.

Priority to juniors and seniors planning research projects in global health.

MCDB 861, The Human Population Explosion
Faculty: Robert Wyman 
When: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30 - 3:54PM

Global population growth in its human, environmental, and economic dimensions. Social and sociobiological bases of reproductive behavior. Population history and the causes of demographic change. Interactions of population growth with economic development and environmental alteration. Overconsumption of the rich and overpopulation of the poor. "Hot-button" issues surrounding fertility: contraception, abortion, infanticide, and the status of women.

ANTH 462/INRL 624/ANTH 662, Ethnographic Perspectives on Global Health
Faculty: Marcia Inhorn 
When: Tuesdays 9:25 - 11:15AM

Study of anthropological ethnographies on serious health problems facing populations in resource-poor societies. Poverty and structural violence; health as a human right; struggles with infectious disease; the health of women and children. Focus on health issues facing sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

ECON 325, Economics of Developing Countries
Faculty: Nancy Qian 
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-10:15AM

Analysis of current problems of developing countries. Emphasis on the role of economic theory in informing public policies to achieve improvements in poverty and inequality, and on empirical analysis to understand markets and responses to poverty. Topics include microfinance, education, health, agriculture, intrahousehold allocations, gender, and corruption.

After introductory microeconomics.

GLBL 303/INRL 533, Global Economies: Markets, Institutions, and Policy
Faculty: Michael Moore 
When: Tuesdays 9:25 -11:15AM

Issues in macroeconomic development and performance analyzed through standard economic frameworks. Developed, closed economies in the United States, the European Union, and Japan; open economies and developing countries. The influence of globalization on countries' growth; policies available for promoting long-term growth and stability.

Prerequisites: introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics.

GLBL 366/EP&E 252/PLSC 401, Promoting Democracy in Developing Countries
Faculty: Harry Blair 

When: Mondays3:30 - 5:20PM

Western efforts to promote democratization in developing countries in the past twenty years through foreign aid programs. Emphasis on "applied democracy"—putting theory into action.

HIST 943 /HSHM 736/WGSS 730 Health Politics, Body Politics
Faculty: Naomi Rogers 
When: Wednesdays 1:30-3:20PM

A reading seminar on struggles to control, pathologize, and normalize human bodies, with a particular focus on science, medicine, and the state, both in North America and in a broader global health context. Topics include colonialism and prostitution; repression and regulation of birth control; the teaching of sex education; the public celebration and denial of sexual difference; politics of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; public health and legal efforts to define and restrict abortion; the pathologizing and identity politics of transgendered people; and the development and regulation of artificial insemination and other methods of reproductive technology.

EPH 591, Global Health Seminar
Faculty: Michael Skonieczny 

When: Mondays, 5:30 - 7:00PM 
Where: The Anlyan Center N107

This course provides a space for discussion and critical thought about current topics in global health. Invited speakers come together with faculty, staff, and students (from YSPH and beyond) during each session to analyze current global health challenges, existing initiatives to address them, and potential alternative approaches. Topics range from sharing lessons learned from specific programs to broader issues such as the interrelation of globalization and health. The seminar represents an opportunity for students to reflect on the hard questions of global health practice. Through these types of discussions, we hope to encourage students to understand health and their role as public health practitioners more holistically, and to begin the difficult work of developing their professional values.

EHS 582, Advanced Medical and Public Health Emergency Planning and Operations
Faculty: Sandy Bogucki 
When: Thursdays, 9:00 - 10:50AM

This course focuses on operational and strategic aspects of response to domestic and international public health and medical emergencies. It emphasizes theory, strategies, ethics, and practical applications in preparation for response to disasters, outbreaks, and acts of terrorism. The course examines specific events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and H1N1, and studies how these events impacted federal and state laws, policies, strategies, and institutions. Additionally, the course looks at the practical aspects of preparing future leaders in the public health profession by teaching students how to design training programs for the workforce, prepare and conduct exercises and drills, and examine the challenges that arise during preparation and response. This course also offers two unique venues for service learning: participation in the Yale-Tulane VMOC, which assists with a common operating picture and briefing materials for decision makers in a public health emergency, and working with the City of New Haven's Department of Health's Office of Emergency Response.

F&ES 320 /EVST 320, International Environmental Law
Faculty: Nicholas Robinson 
When: Wednesdays, 9:25 - 11:15AM

Examination of how nations negotiate, establish, and implement international environmental law and how the United Nations and other international agencies function. Simulated negotiations; discussion of diplomatic negotiations regarding climate change that occur during the term.

F&ES 899 /EHS 560, Sustainable Development in Post-Disaster Context: Haiti
Faculty: Gordon Geballe, Gary Desir 
When: Wednesdays, 4:30 – 8:20PM

Sustainable development is studied using the case of Haiti. Haiti suffers from chronic environmental disasters, most notably deforestation that leads to mudslides and therefore crop loss during the rainy season, and acute disasters, for example the earthquake of 2010. F&ES has been asked by L'Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in the Artibonite Valley (north of Port-au-Prince) to provide assistance to projects in villages surrounding the hospital. This course uses lectures, student presentations of scholarly work, project development, and field studies to explore our knowledge of sustainable development and to apply this knowledge.

INRL 524/PLSC 594/PHIL 703/HPM 599 Global Health Ethics, Politics, and Economics
Faculty: Thomas Pogge, Jennifer Ruger "
When: Tuesdays, 10:10 - 12:00PM

Billions lack access to basic medical care, and global health inequalities are wide and growing. Such radical disparities cast doubt on the justice of supranational institutional arrangements (such as the TRIPS Agreement) and also pose ethical challenges for the global health community, especially international and domestic health and development institutions. Seeking to illuminate the normative issues involved, the course features a series of distinguished visitors, including academics as well as a few important representatives of international organizations, politics, foundations, NGOs, and relevant industries.

Follows Law School academic calendar.

INRL 713, Critical Issues in Development Policy
Faculty: Pia Britto
When: Thursdays, 3:20 - 5:20PM

The focus of the course is on national policy development. Students are exposed to the relationship among international agencies, international development frameworks, human rights instruments, and national governments in formulating national social and public policies with respect to economic and social development. The course uses early childhood, an epoch of human development, as an example to study national policy making. A policy laboratory methodology is employed to demonstrate application of policy development knowledge learned in class to a real-world setting.

AFST 647 /AFST 447/PLSC 447/EP&E 271/ER&M 271 

Rwandan Genocide In Compared Context 
Faculty: David Simon 
When: Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:20PM

Description NA

HSHM 437 /HIST 435JThe Global Crisis of Malaria
Faculty: Frank Snowden 
When: Tuesdays, 1:30 - 3:20PM

The global crisis of malaria examined in comparative and historical context. The mosquito theory of transmission and other developments in scientific understanding of the disease; World Health Organization strategies to eradicate malaria since 1955; the development of tools such as insecticides, medication, and bed nets; the attempt to create an effective vaccine: Permission of instructor required

HSHM 212/HIST 932/HIST 146/HSHM 629 Historical Perspectives on Global Health
Faculty: Joana Radin 
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:35 - 12:25PM

The global crisis of malaria examined in comparative and historical context. The mosquito theory of transmission and other developments in scientific understanding of the disease; World Health Organization strategies to eradicate malaria since 1955; the development of tools such as insecticides, medication, and bed nets; the attempt to create an effective vaccine: Permission of instructor required