Global Health, MA
Anthropologist, Anthropology, Culture, Disease, Evolution, Global, Global health, Governance, Health, Human Evolution, International, Medicine, human, institution, systems
Are you concerned about global health issues and passionate about changing the world? You can go beyond fighting disease and health disparities by digging deeper into their sociocultural roots. Pick up where medical practice leaves off, and create new, far-reaching solutions to both localized and universal health concerns.
In this MA program, global health is considered to be much more than, and very different from, international public health. It emphasizes that major health challenges stem from many factors well beyond disease itself --- factors that are cultural, ecological, evolutionary, historical, institutional, social and technological.
Any effective, sustainable solutions to the most pressing global health challenges need to take all these factors into account, including the complex ways in which they relate to each other. In this manner, this degree program teaches students to understand health challenges not simply as a product of disease, but as emerging in the contexts of complex and interrelated ecology, politics, history, culture, social institutions and evolutionary biology. It also places primacy on how to address the broader bases of ill health (i.e., structural, cultural) in complicated, ever-changing health challenges in low-resource community settings and a globalizing world. To do this, the program combines social and life science theories with on-the-ground research and its application. There is a strong emphasis on collaborative action as key to identifying and addressing global health problems in a sustainable and meaningful way.
Students accepted to the program are tied to ongoing transdisciplinary global health projects that address complicated, multifaceted health challenges that defy easy fixes, such as climate change-related diseases, emerging infectious diseases and obesity.
By applying a collaborative, problem-solving format, the master's degree program in global health is intended to provide those planning to enter health or related fields (i.e., environmental, social) with the transdisciplinary orientation, team skills and social and cultural acuity that the Pew Health Professions Commission, among others, has identified as critical but lacking in current health workforce training. The program also emphasizes experiential learning as a way to gain mastery and requires participation in a global internship program based in one of the international partnering communities.
- College/school:
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Location: Tempe
Acceptance to the graduate program requires a separate application. Students typically receive approval to pursue the accelerated master’s during the junior year of their bachelor's degree program. Interested students can learn about eligibility requirements and how to apply.
30 credit hours including the required applied project course (SSH 593)
Required Core (3 credit hours) Open Electives (6 credit hours) Restricted Electives (6 credit hours) Other Requirements (9 credit hours) Culminating Experience (6 credit hours) Additional Curriculum Information Substitutions may be permitted by the graduate director for other requirement and restricted elective coursework. Additional methods-focused courses or graduate-level epidemiology courses can count toward these requirements. Applied projects are completed in consultation with a faculty advisor. Students may use the fieldwork, internship or practicum experience as part of the research for the applied project.
ASB 510 Health: Social and Biocultural Theories (3)
ASB 580 Practicum (1-6)
ASB 583 Fieldwork (1-6)
ASB 584 Internship (1-6)
ASB 500 Ethnographic Research Methods (3)
ASB 503 Medical Anthropology (3)
SSH 591 Seminar: Principles of Epidemiology for Global Health (3)
SSH 593 Applied Project (6)
For restricted electives, students complete at least six credit hours from the list above.
Applicants must fulfill the requirements of both the Graduate College and The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Applicants are eligible to apply to the program if they have earned, from a regionally accredited institution, a bachelor's or master's degree in the social or life sciences (i.e., anthropology, sociology, gender studies, geography, political science, or public health or related fields, such as nutrition or human biology).
Applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in the last 60 hours of their first bachelor's degree program or a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in an applicable master's degree program.
All applicants must submit:
- graduate admission application and application fee
- official transcripts
- personal statement outlining educational and professional goals
- current curriculum vitae or resume
- three letters of recommendation
- proof of English proficiency
Additional Application Information
An applicant whose native language is not English must provide proof of English proficiency regardless of their current residency.
Applicants may submit with their application materials an optional scholarly writing sample, not to exceed 30 double-spaced pages.
Admission is competitive and based on student academic excellence, additional relevant experience, and fit with available faculty. Value is placed on foreign language skills; practical, cross-cultural and international experiences; and prior social science and life science research.
Nationally and internationally, the health field provides enormous and varied career opportunities, and demand is high and growing for graduates with specific skills. The program supports the goals of those pursuing careers in academic research teaching and health services. Sample employment venues include:
- government agencies
- health departments
- international agencies (World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global Health Council, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank)
- nongovernmental organizations
- private sector entities
- universities
The degree program also provides a broad intellectual base for those who plan advanced specialist health training in fields such as:
- dentistry
- medicine
- nursing
- pharmacy
In Arizona and elsewhere, there is a pressing need for appropriately skilled professionals to work in cross-cultural settings or with underserved populations such as migrants, minorities and those living in poverty, and many of these jobs are directly or indirectly related to health.
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
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SHESC 233
shesc.grad@asu.edu
480-965-6215
Admission deadlines
3 year programs
These programs allow students to fast-track their studies after admission and earn a bachelor's degree in three years or fewer while participating in the same high-quality educational experience of a 4-year option. Students should talk to their academic advisor to get started.
Accelerated master's
These programs allow students to accelerate their studies to earn a bachelor's plus a master's degree in as few as five years (for some programs).
Each program has requirements students must meet to be eligible for consideration. Acceptance to the graduate program requires a separate application. Students typically receive approval to pursue the accelerated master’s during the junior year of their bachelor's degree program. Interested students can learn about eligibility requirements and how to apply.
