Teaching

PHP 1796: The Historical Determinants of Health

An ignorance of public health history is partly to blame for our imperfect response to COVID-19 in the United States. Throughout the pandemic, the reductive framing of public health’s greatest challenges —from addressing vaccine hesitancy, the rampant spread of pseudoscience and misinformation, or pervasive stigma and discrimination in communities of color—allowed our field to overlook the deep and undeniable historical roots of contemporary public health practice. This course will highlight the central role historical determinants of public health continue to play in shaping health policy and response. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a prism, students will critically examine the successes and setbacks of earlier eras in public health history, providing them with the historical framing necessary to better understand and advocate for impactful public health interventions in the present and future.

Course Syllabus available here ➡

Public health experts are responding to an overwhelming number of humanitarian crises around the world, including disease outbreaks, conflict, and forcible displacement. Although the common narrative in the field of public health is that the complex social, political, and ideological challenges we face are unprecedented, an examination of the history of public health in acute crises reveals that many struggles confronting us today are neither entirely novel nor unique.

This course is premised on the belief that public health experts rarely understand the full nature of previous humanitarian health crises and argues that a better understanding of historical events will improve our response to future challenges. Through thoughtful reflection and interactive discussion, we will explore the oft-repeated themes that continue to challenge public health and humanitarian response to this day and examine the progress we’ve made as a field. Most importantly, we will question why lessons identified so often fail to become lessons learned.

PHP 2700: Lessons (Un)Learned in Public Health and Humanitarian Response: A Historical Perspective

This course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of global health interventions, examining their historical evolution, structural complexities, ethical implications, and future challenges. Students will analyze key health initiatives, from disease eradication campaigns to modern responses to pandemics, and evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches, including vertical, horizontal, and diagonal strategies. Through case studies and critical discussions, the course highlights the roles of international organizations, governments, NGOs, and local actors in shaping global health outcomes.

Special emphasis is placed on understanding how interventions address–or sometimes exacerbate–health inequities, the influence of social and environmental determinants, and the challenges of implementing sustainable solutions in diverse contexts. Students will also engage with pressing issues such as antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and the ethics of humanitarian health responses, considering how future interventions can better align with principles of equity and empowerment.

PHP 0700: Global Public Health Interventions