Introductory description

This module offers an in-depth examination of global health and wellbeing within a non-medical Global Sustainable Development context, addressing 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.

The module explores governance, wellbeing, and transdisciplinary approaches as core themes, with a focus on health frameworks including co-production, representation through arts and media, and decolonisation. Teaching and case studies are interdisciplinary, drawing on social science research, human geography, planetary health, and global perspectives from both the Global North and Global South. The module examines governance of global healthcare, funding flows, physical and mental health, as well as individual, community and environmental wellbeing, Indigenous and traditional health systems, and representations of health in popular media. Both terms are stand-alone 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.

Outline syllabus for publication

Term 1 – What are global health and wellbeing?

Following an introduction to health in a non-medical Global Sustainable Development context, we will explore what health means to different communities and the global and local governance (or absence thereof) of health. We will examine historical trajectories that define current governance arrangements and critique flows of funding related to drugs, disease campaigns, and corporations.

From there, we will study physical and mental health topics including contemporary therapeutic trends, stigma, and service provision across the globe, going beyond the North/South divide.

The final block introduces wellbeing frameworks, going from individual health to community wellbeing and planetary determinants of health (environmental health), culminating in an introduction to co-production that leads into Term 2.

Term 2 – Critique, frameworks & co-production

The introductory block will outline cross-cutting critique and analytical frameworks for challenging current global health practice, including behavioural frameworks, decolonising health, and transdisciplinary approaches. We will then focus on co-production principles and practice through project workshops to challenge classic hierarchies in health knowledges.

The second block explores Indigenous knowledges, traditional health systems, and innovations from the Global South and in low-resource settings.

The final block examines representations of health in popular media (movies, TV shows, videogames), analysing what these representations reveal about public perception, different knowledge systems, and preparedness for health crises.

Throughout the module, students will explore case studies from across the globe, covering low-, middle-, and high-income and resource contexts. Seminars will emphasise active learning, critical analysis, co-production principles, engagement with diverse media, and the use of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary frameworks to inform our understanding of global and local health and wellbeing.

Learning outcomes

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

• Appreciate economic, social, environmental, and governance dimensions of global health and wellbeing issues from Global North and Global South perspectives
• Understand and evaluate un-/intended outcomes of health interventions, policies, and governance structures including funding flows and influences
• Develop balanced and theoretically grounded arguments on the potential and limitations of technical solutions, behavioural frameworks, and non-medical approaches to health problems
• Critically analyse the ways in which development processes, contextual change, power dynamics, and decolonisation affect people's health and wellbeing
• Apply interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary frameworks to global health
• Evaluate representations of health in media (film, television, videogames) and their influence on public perception and health discourses
• Acquire theoretical and practical tools to become an active change-maker in the field of global health, including through creative and arts-based approaches

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module

Research element

Research skills are embedded into the teaching strategy of the module. By the end of the module students will be enabled to apply interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research methods to global health and wellbeing issues, including co-production principles, visual mapping techniques, and creative arts-based research approaches.

Interdisciplinary

This is an optional core module on the Global Sustainable Development course which adopts an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary 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 social science research, human geography, sports, more than human research, planetary health, Indigenous knowledges, arts and media studies, and non-medical health frameworks including governance, behavioural sciences, and co-production approaches.

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 and wellbeing issues that need to be addressed, including real-life examples
• Use and apply established frameworks and methodologies for analysing health governance, funding flows, and wellbeing determinants across scales
• Generate and evaluate different models of health and wellbeing (beyond medical models) to assess their likely impact
• Engage with real-life problems relevant to sustainable development, health, and wellbeing
• 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 through co-production to create new knowledge
• Employ transdisciplinary and creative approaches to challenging assumptions and negotiating alternatives to unsustainable current practices
• Analyse representations of health in arts and media and their implications for global health discourse

Transferable skills

Intellectual skills: Students will possess the knowledge and vocabulary to discuss theories and methods for approaching global health and wellbeing issues from different governance, social, environmental, cultural, and historical perspectives; they will be able to critically interrogate statements about global health as part of sustainable development; understand how global health and wellbeing differ in policy and practice, what they may look like locally, and interpret potential implications.

Practical skills: Students will develop written and visual communication skills, including how to write a research paper or proposal and create visual mapping exercises; teamwork skills in co-production workshops and group activities during the seminars; content analysis skills in critically reading, listening to, watching, and interpreting various materials including film, television, and videogames.

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 studies, mapping exercises, and paper writing; oral, written, and visual communications; skills in designing arts-based and creative research projects.