This is the first version of the 2023-24 General Catalog. The final edition and the historical PDF will be published during the fall semester.

Learning Outcomes

The minor in global health studies equips students to:

  • apply interdisciplinary perspectives drawn from the social sciences and humanities to local and global health issues;
  • analyze health and disease from biomedical, sociocultural, and environmental perspectives;
  • understand how health issues affect domestic and international communities;
  • recognize the ethical challenges involved in interventions designed to improve health and health equity across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The undergraduate minor in global health studies requires a minimum of 15 s.h., including 12 s.h. in courses completed at the University of Iowa. Students must maintain a grade-point average of at least 2.00 in all courses for the minor and in all UI courses for the minor. Coursework in the minor may not be taken pass/nonpass.

The minor is interdisciplinary and designed for students who wish to study the complex factors influencing health and disease locally and around the world.

A maximum of 6 s.h. of coursework used to satisfy requirements for another major, minor, or certificate may be applied toward the minor. This includes second areas, concentrations, and cognates, with the exception of the B.A. in journalism and mass communication, for which no overlap is assessed. Students may earn either the minor or the certificate in global health studies, but not both. Undergraduates who earn the minor in global health studies may not earn the major in global health studies.

The minor in global health studies requires the following coursework.

One of these:
GHS:2000Introduction to Global Health Studies3
GHS:3850Promoting Health Globally3
One of these:
GHS:3720Contemporary Issues in Global Health3
GHS:4003Case Studies in Global Health Inequities3
6 s.h. from these:
GHS:1200Disabilities and Inclusion in Writing and Film Around the World3
GHS:3034Doing Harm by Doing Good: The Ethics of Studying, Volunteering, and Working in Global Communities1
GHS:3035Engaging in Global Health1
GHS:3036Ethics, Politics, and Global Health3
GHS:3037Technology to Improve Global Health3
GHS:3060Studies in Complementary and Alternative Medicine3
GHS:3105Contraception Across Time and Cultures3
GHS:3120Global Maternal and Child Health3
GHS:3230Health Experience of Immigrants, Migrants, and Refugees3
GHS:3325Global Epidemics3
GHS:3560Global Garbage and Global Health3
GHS:4001Social Entrepreneurship and Global Health3
GHS:4002Working in Global Health3
One of these:
Global Health Perspectives and Practices course(s) if not taken as a requirement above; see B.A. or B.S. in global health studies for approved list3
Approved global health-themed study abroad coursework (consult GHS advisor)3