Global Health
Engage with the many facets of health and equity.
What is Global Health?
Global Health Career Community
Oberlin’s career development center works with students interested in the field of global health to secure summer and winter term internships at the forefront of health research, advocacy, and service.
Science with a Positive Social Impact
The curricular strengths of Oberlin’s science education combined with our ethos of social engagement prepare our students with the tools needed to make new discoveries, the skills to communicate them, and the passion to have them make a difference.
Featured Courses
Introduction to Global Health
This course provides an overview of global patterns of disease and the factors that influence human health. Students will learn about issues relating to social, cultural, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health. A specific focus will be placed on health issues relating to low income countries and underserved populations.
- Taught by
Environmental Toxicology and Global Health
This course is designed to introduce students to key global public health concepts, the history of public health, and how the core areas of public health can be integrated to promote health at a population level. Students examine basic concepts of toxicology, environmental science, neuroscience and many others as they apply to the effects of environmental pollutants on diseases. Students will engage in active learning through the use of individual and team activities, discussions, debates, and field experiences.
- Taught by
- Gunnar Kwakye
Medical Anthropology
Cultivate an anthropological understanding of the intersections between disease, health, society, the body, culture, and global political economy. Drawing on accounts from across the globe, course topics include: comparative study of health systems; cross-cultural definitions and understandings of disease, illness, and health; bodies, medicine, and the media; maladies from chronic pain to AIDS to cholera; topics in disability studies and fat studies; health, ethics, and morality; health inequalities; and global health.
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Biomedical Ethics
This course examines the ethical problems arising in the practice of medicine and biomedical research. Topics include death and dying, medical paternalism, physician assisted suicide, eugenics, cloning, research ethics, and more. Our readings will be drawn primarily from contemporary philosophers.
- Taught by
- Amy Berg
Student Profiles
Pandemic Impact Award
After graduating from Oberlin College with high honors in neuroscience and a concentration in linguistics, Zoe Swann ’19 immediately embarked on a PhD program at Arizona State University. Then COVID-19 struck.
From Oberlin to Johns Hopkins Hospital
Sophia Yapalater ’13 is on her way to medical school. At Oberlin, she majored in comparative American studies, which gave her the framework to understand social issues “with an eye toward always prioritizing lived experiences of individuals and communities.”
Researching Mental Health
At Oberlin, Ify Ezimora ’19 double majored in psychology and environmental studies and pursued research with a number of faculty. She now applies the skills she gained as an undergraduate to her current role as a clinical research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and the Miriam Hospital.
