Focus Areas
What are Focus Areas?
As a program we realize that global health is a broad field with many specialties. In the M.S. Global Health Program we established “focus areas” as a way for students to categorize and describe their interests in global health. Focus areas combine electives, external certificates, and Georgetown experiences around a particular theme.
Students do not formally select a “focus area” and they are not listed on the degree. However, students and alumni can use these focus areas to detail their academic background and experiences in conversations, interviews, and resumes.
Below are a list of common “focus areas” that our students have tailored their coursework and experiences around. This list is not exhaustive and only limited to a student’s imagination.
Disease Prevention and Control
Disease Prevention and Control will provide in depth training on the epidemiology, impact and control of infectious, as well as non-communicable and chronic diseases. Students who choose this area will develop competency on topics as diverse as global emerging and re-emerging diseases, the threat of bioterrorism, large-scale international disease control partnerships, global environmental health issues, and the growing double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases in low- to middle-income countries.
Health Financing
Health Financing will prepare graduates for quantitative financial and policy work in support of governments in low- and middle-income countries. Students will learn to analyze and assess health insurance and other risk-pooling systems. They will master the techniques of health economics and acquire a framework for analyzing health care systems and designing strategies for system reform.
Health and Development
This broad area allows graduates to select a current health and development-related topic and study it in more detail. It prepares graduates to perform analytical work and to evaluate policy interventions in the selected area. Students can address a wide range of topics, such as rapidly growing and also contracting populations; population aging and the youth bulge; urbanization, slum formation, urban health planning intensifying migration flows that affect both sender and recipient countries; plus issues of climate change, national and international security, inequity, gender imbalance, and poverty. Graduates will have the necessary skills to link general development trends and issues to the broader framework of global health and to support developing countries in the planning and implementation of evidence-based policies and programs.
Students who complete a specific set of courses in area of the “Health and Development” have the opportunity to earn the Certificate in African Studies from the School of Foreign Service at no additional charge. (See “Certificates” below to learn more.)
Migration & Development
Description coming soon…
Students who complete a specific set of courses in area of the “Health and Development” have the opportunity to earn the Certificate in Refugees, Migration & Humanitarian Emergencies. (See “Certificates” below to learn more.)
Global Health Governance: Politics, Policies & Intuitions
This area introduces graduates to the institutions and actors shaping global health, the relationship and impact of laws designed to protect and promote human health, and global health governance. Graduates will apply political science and policy studies methods to examine the economic, social, technological, and political dimensions of global health. They will analyze how globalization and the international trade regime impact national regulation, the provision of healthcare, and global public health. The role of nation-states, international organizations, local governments, social movements, NGOs, and international legal instruments will be reviewed.
Urban Health, Demographics & Reproductive Health
Description coming soon…
Certificates
Certificates are another way students can tailor their studies to fall in a particular “focus area.” Below are a few certificates that students can complete simultaneously through the flexibility offered when selecting elective courses.
Certificate in African Studies
This certificate provides students with training on critical aspects of African development from a demographic, economic, political, social, environmental, cultural, and health perspective. The area offers historical analysis as well as a vision for the future of African development. Students will analyze the causes and consequences of poverty, key issues in African population health, the impact of rapid urbanization on health and development, and the state of African health systems.
Requirements for the certificate include completion of the Field Research Module in Africa, as well as demonstrated proficiency in any language spoken on the African continent. More information about the language requirement is provided during orientation.
From the School of Foreign Services webpage: “The Certificate [in African Studies] is open to any graduate student who had already been admitted to a Georgetown University graduate program. Please complete the African Studies Certificate interest form.”
Certificate in Refugees, Migration, and Humanitarian Emergencies
More info coming soon…
Electives
Elective course are offered by the program and are updated each year. Course offerings are subject to change, year-to-year.
Students may enroll in courses offered by other Georgetown programs with approval from the Program Director.