Academic Bulletin Freshman Tutorials - 2011-12 - 11 FT 11

 Even though we tend to think of it as how we are feeling, “health” is determined by a variety of factors including biology, income, education, social status, sex, and access to health services. Dramatic advances in improving health have been made over the last several decades, although it is clear that this progress has been very uneven as there exist huge disparities in health status both within and among different countries. In this tutorial we will examine global health as a liberal art, i.e., as a multi-faceted topic that involves problems which cut across socioeconomics, politics, religion, ethics and the sciences. Through readings and a few films we’ll consider HIV/AIDS and other communicable (as well as non-communicable) diseases that afflict hundreds of millions of people on the planet, particularly poorer people in low and middle-income countries who continue to get sick, become disabled or disfigured, or die from preventable illnesses. So what does it mean to “act responsibly” and to “live humanely” in the face of such problems?