Introductory description

This module offers an in-depth examination of the field of global health, including theories, case-studies from around
the world and analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (“good health and well-being”). This two-term module
involves a blend of conceptual foundations, case study analysis, and active learning through role-play, engaging with
different media and group work. Teaching and case studies are interdisciplinary, drawing on social science research,
human geography and planetary health. Both terms are alone-standing but complement each other.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Term 1
Following an introduction to global health and development, we will explore the global and local governance (or
absence thereof) of health, historical trajectories that define current governance arrangements and the structures of
national health systems. From there, we will study specific topics of global health within the Sustainable Development
Goal 3 and topics outside the SDGs that are key to the global health agendas. We will also look at the links between
global health and environmental change and present recent case-studies from across Global North and Global South.
Term 2
The introductory week of this module will outline cross-cutting issues in health and sustainable development, and their
analytical power in interrogating and challenging current global health practice. We will then focus on cross-cutting
issues that shape and impact on global health. This will include frameworks for interpreting, addressing and initiating
change as active players in global health; unfinished and upcoming issues that will dominate debates and discourses
in the coming years and tools to understand and become change-makers. This term still offers some key foundations
of global health and development, focussing on inequalities and past and recent issues, then focusses on human
behaviour and influences on global health; ethics; trans-disciplinarity and multiplicity of knowledge systems as
potential ways forward in global health.
Throughout the module, students will explore case studies from across the globe, covering low-, middle-, and highincome
contexts. Seminars will also emphasise the use of data to inform our understanding of global and local health
problems.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Appreciate economic, social, environmental, and governance dimensions of global health issues
• Understand and evaluate un/-intended outcomes of health interventions and policies
• Develop balanced and theoretically grounded arguments on the potential and limitations of technical solutions for health problems
• Critically analyse the ways in which development processes and contextual change affect people’s health
• Apply interdisciplinary frameworks to global health
• Acquire theoretical and practical tools to become an active change-maker in the field of global health

Indicative reading list

A module reader will be collated and its readings published on Moodle. A sample of the reading is provided below:

Randall, M. P. (2016). A history of global health: interventions into the lives of other peoples. Baltimore, MA: Johns
Hopkins University Press.

Birn, A.-E., Pillay, Y., & Holtz, T. H. (2018). Textbook of global health (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.Hanefeld, J. (Ed.). (2015).
Globalization and health (2nd ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
O’Manique, C., & Fourie, P. (Eds.). (2018). Global health and security: critical feminist perspectives. Abingdon:
Routledge.

McElroy, A., & Townsend, P. K. (2015). Medical anthropology in ecological perspective (6th ed.). Boulder, CO:
Westview.

Abrams Press. Parker, R., & García, J. (Eds.). (2019). Routledge handbook on the politics of global health.

Abingdon: Routledge. Lee, K., & Collin, J. (Eds.). (2005). Global change and health. Maidenhead: Open University
Press.

Ong'era FM, Stewart J, Bukusi E. Why and for whom are we decolonising global health? Lancet Glob Health.
2021;9(10):e1359–60.

The history of US healthcare in 7 minutes - Audio visual document. Healthcare Triage is a series about healthcare
hosted by Dr. Aaron Carroll who explains healthcare policy, medical research, and answers a lot of other questions
you may have about medicine, health, and healthcare.

Pearson M, Chandler C. Knowing antmicrobial resistance in practice: a multi-country qualitative study with human and
animal healthcare professionals. Glob Health Action. 2019;12(1):1599560. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2019.1599560.
PMID: 31294679; PMCID: PMC6703149.

Gorsky, M. and Nelson, E (2022) 'SDG 3 – Historical Perspectives on Health and Well-Being as International Policy
Goals', in M. Gutmann and D. Gorman (eds) Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Oxford University Press,
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192848758.003.0004

Shulla K, Voigt BF, Cibian S, Scandone G, Martinez E, Nelkovski F, Salehi P. Effects of COVID-19 on the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). Discov Sustain. 2021;2(1):15. doi: 10.1007/s43621-021-00026-x. Epub 2021 Mar 17.
PMID: 35425922; PMCID: PMC7967781.

IPCC, 2022: Summary for Policymakers [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, M. Tignor, A.

Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts,
Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K.
Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 3–33, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.001.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/asia/india-pollution-inequality.html

Cristiano, S. and Zilio, S., 2021. Whose Health in Whose City? A Systems Thinking Approach to Support and
Evaluate Plans, Policies, and Strategies for Lasting Urban Health. Sustainability, [online] 13(21), p.12225.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Research skills are embedded into the teaching strategy of the module. By the end of the module student will be
enabled to apply cross-disciplinary research methods to global health issues.

Interdisciplinary

This is an optional core module on the Global Sustainable Development course which adopts an interdisciplinary
approach spanning the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences fields in order to engage with the major global
challenges facing contemporary society, explore these 'big problems,' from a variety of perspectives and consider a
range of possible solutions. Specifically, for this module, teaching and case studies are interdisciplinary, drawing on
medical as well as social science research.

International

This is an optional core module on the Global Sustainable Development course which offers a unique trans-disciplinary and international learning experience that allows students to achieve breadth and depth of knowledge.

Subject specific skills

Ability to:

• critically assess and analyse global health issues that need to be addressed, including real-life examples;
• use and apply established frameworks and methodologies for analysing the impact(s) of a process;
• generate and evaluate different models of health to assess their likely impact;
• engage with real-life problems relevant to sustainable development and health;
  use historical knowledge and an understanding of the consequences of past actions to envision how futures
  may be shaped;
• identify the importance of empowering individuals and organisations to work together to create new knowledge;
  employ leadership for global health by challenging assumptions and negotiating alternatives to unsustainable
  current practices.

Transferable skills

Intellectual skills: students will possess the knowledge and vocabulary to converse about theories and methods for
approaching global health issues from different biomedical, social, political and historical perspectives; they will be
able to critically interrogate statements about global health as part of sustainable development; understand how global
health differs in policy and practice, what it may look like locally and interpret potential implications.
Practical skills: students will develop written communication skills, including how to write a research paper; teamwork
skills in the preparation of games and activities; content analysis skills in critically reading, listening to, watching and
interpreting various materials.
Employability Skills: students will refine project management skills in developing ideas on how to assimilate different
readings and assignments into original, informed discussion on the topic; research skills in using databases, wider
readings and visuals to inform research for case-study, essay and paper writing; oral and written communications.