Information and Policies
Introduction
Global and Community Health (GCH) is an interdisciplinary field of study that is connected both to urgent practical work in the world at large and the core concerns of a liberal arts education. Since GCH topics are embedded in and reflective of wide-ranging social forces, their study is situated at the intersection of diverse traditional disciplines ranging from art, literature, and history, to anthropology, sociology, psychology, politics, economics, and the natural and environmental sciences. Other interdisciplinary fields such as feminist studies and Latin American and Latino studies also intersect in influential ways with GCH, creating exciting opportunities for double majors.
University of California, Santa Cruz, students have many opportunities in the GCH curriculum for practical work in the world beyond the university. Students reflect repeatedly through the major on how their own personal learning can be effectively connected with and communicated to external audiences ranging from community organizations to employers to graduate schools.
More than two hundred courses offered by faculty from all five divisions of UC Santa Cruz contribute to the GCH curriculum. These faculty are committed to the value of interdisciplinary learning, as well as to the possibilities of connecting student research and writing with GCH concerns in the world beyond the university.
No specific courses at the high school level are required for admission to the GCH B.A. at UC Santa Cruz. Courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, whether taken at the high school or college level, are appropriate background and preparation.
The GCH B.A. is appropriate for students interested in careers ranging from medicine, nursing , dentistry and pharmacy to public health and environmental health work in governmental agencies, to global health and community health work with non-governmental organizations, law firms and universities. Many of these careers also require additional post baccalaureate degrees for which the GCH B.A. provides an excellent foundation. But there are also jobs open to those with just the B.A. in a subset of community health, counseling and educational settings as well as in business sectors such as human resources, administration, hospitality, recreation, food services, farming and construction.
Program Learning Outcomes
Students completing requirements for the B.A. in GCH will develop knowledge and competency in the following five domains:
- the biological and environmental contexts of global and community health;
- the social and cultural contexts of global and community health;
- the institutional and policy contexts of global and community health;
- the methods, skills and humanities-informed analysis of global and community health; and
- the interdisciplinary design and implementation of global and community health work.
Academic Advising for the Program
The GCH undergraduate adviser offers specific information about navigating through the program and assists students with requirements, policies, procedures, learning support, guidance on internships, scholarships, and opportunities for undergraduate research.
Contact gchBAadvising@ucsc.edu.
Transfer students should also consult the Transfer Information and Policy section.
Getting Started in the Major: Frosh
This is a moderately course-intensive sequential program, and students who intend to pursue this major should begin taking classes for the major in their first year at UC Santa Cruz.
It is crucial for students to take the required introductory course Foundations for Global and Community Health as soon as possible. This fall it is cross-listed three ways as POLI 89/ANTH 89/ BIOL89, and students can register under any one of these three subject codes.
Transfer Information and Policy
Transfer Admission Screening Policy
Students planning to apply in this major are not required to complete specific major preparation courses before they come to UC Santa Cruz.
Getting Started in the Major: Transfer Students
A transfer student must take the required lower-division GCH course (GCH 1) in the fall of their first year at UC Santa Cruz or as soon thereafter as possible.
Courses from another institution may be considered only if they appear on the student’s Transfer Credit Summary. Students who wish to substitute transferable courses taken elsewhere for the GCH B.A. major’s requirements should discuss the procedure with a GCH adviser.
Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process
Students may declare the major after completing the required lower-division GCH course (GCH1, cross-listed in fall 2022 as ANTH89/BIOL89/POLI89) with grades of C or better. This course is normally taken during the first year or second year.
Appeal Process
A student who has not been able to satisfy the pre-declaration requirement may petition the GCH program for an exception by using this Appeal to Qualify form within 15 days of the denial of the declaration. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the department will notify the student and college of the decision. If a student has questions about the appeals process, they should contact gchBAadvising@ucsc.edu.
How to Declare a Major
Students who are eligible to declare the major must bring a completed declaration of major worksheet and GCH B.A. worksheet to the GCH advising office to declare officially.
Letter Grade Policy
All courses that are taken to satisfy any major requirement must be taken for a letter grade.
Double Majors and Major/Minor Combinations Policy
Students interested in pursuing multiple majors may NOT declare a combination of the Global and Community Health B.S. and B.A.. Double majors with other degrees are permitted so long as students qualify for and complete all requirements for each of the majors, including the Disciplinary Communication and comprehensive requirements.
Honors
Honors in the GCH B.A. are awarded to graduating seniors, based primarily on a review of grades, whose academic performance is judged to be consistently excellent by a committee of GCH faculty. Highest honors in the major are reserved for students with consistently outstanding academic performance.
Independent and Field Studies
Students may petition the program to substitute one upper-division independent study or field study toward the elective requirements of the major. In addition, students may take UCEAP study abroad courses focused on public and global health to fulfill the Area IV upper-division elective requirement for the major after approval of a request submitted to a GCH undergraduate adviser.
Medical and Professional School Admission
Medical and professional school admissions requirements vary; students should verify that their coursework will satisfy the admissions requirements of the specific programs to which they plan to apply.
Requirements and Planners
Course Requirements
Lower-Division Courses
One lower-division GCH requirement
All students are required to complete and pass Foundations for Global and Community Health (GCH 1), cross-listed in fall 2022 as ANTH89/BIOL89/POLI89.
| GCH 1 | Foundations for Global and Community Health | 5 |
Four Lower Division GCH Electives
All students are required to take four lower-division electives from the four lists below: one from the natural science and bio-environmental competency list; one from the social science and political-cultural competency list; one from the quantitative competency list; and one from the linguistic competency list. These courses are normally taken during the student's first year.
One course required from each of the four lists. Lecture/Lab combinations count as one course.*
*Revised: 5/30/23.
Natural science and bio-environmental competency for GCH
| ANTH 1 | Introduction to Biological Anthropology | 5 |
| BIOE 19 | Biodiversity in the Age of Humans | 5 |
| BIOL 20A | Cell and Molecular Biology | 5 |
| BIOL 80A | Female Physiology and Gynecology | 5 |
| BIOL 80J | Biology of Emerging and Pandemic Diseases | 5 |
| BIOL 86 | Research Deconstruction: MCD Biology | 3 |
| BIOL 88 | Studies in Medicine: Its Art, History, Science, and Philosophy | 5 |
| BME 5 | Introduction to Biotechnology | 5 |
| BME 18 | Scientific Principles of Life | 5 |
| BME 80H | The Human Genome | 5 |
| CHEM 1A | General Chemistry | 5 |
| CHEM 8A | Organic Chemistry | 5 |
| CSE 80A | Universal Access: Disability, Technology, and Society | 5 |
| ENVS 24 | General Ecology | 5 |
| ENVS 25 | Environmental Policy and Economics | 5 |
| ENVS 80F | Introduction to Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems | 5 |
| COM HLT 48 | Community Health Sciences 48: Nutrition and Food Studies: Principles and Practice (UCLA) | |
| NUT 010V | Discoveries & Concepts in Nutrition (UCD) | |
| PUBHLTH 1 | Principles of Public Health (UCI) | |
| SAS2V | Feeding the World (UCD) | |
| VME 57V | Global Pop Health & Env (UCD) | |
Social science and political-cultural competency for GCH
| ANTH 2 | Introduction to Cultural Anthropology | 5 |
| BME 80G
/PHIL 80G
| Bioethics in the 21st Century: Science, Business, and Society | 5 |
| CLNI 60 | Water Justice: Global Insights for a Critical Resource | 5 |
| CMMU 10 | Introduction to Community Activism | 5 |
| ECON 1 | Introductory Microeconomics: Resource Allocation and Market Structure | 5 |
| ECON 20 | Economics for Non-Majors | 5 |
| FMST 10 | Feminisms of/and the Global South | 5 |
| FMST 30 | Feminism and Science | 5 |
| FMST 31 | Disability Studies | 5 |
| FMST 41 | Trans Gender Bodies | 5 |
| GCH 10 | COVID, Culture and Community Health | 5 |
| HAVC 48 | Climate Justice Now! Art, Activism, Environment Today | 5 |
| HIS 60 | Medical and Scientific Terminology | 5 |
| HIS 81 | Science in the Colonial World | 5 |
| JRLC 60 | Understanding Sustainability: Researching Environmental Justice at UCSC | 5 |
| LALS 5 | Introduction to Human Rights and Social Justice | 5 |
| LALS 45 | Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender | 5 |
| LALS 55 | AIDS Across the Americas | 5 |
| LALS 80J | Race, Nation, and War | 5 |
| LALS 80S | Sexualities and Genders in Latin American and Latina/o Studies | 5 |
| LIT 80K | Topics in Medical Humanities | 5 |
| POLI 17 | U.S. and the World Economy | 5 |
| POLI 61 | Politics of Social Policy | 5 |
| PSYC 1 | Introduction to Psychology | 5 |
| SOCY 1 | Introduction to Sociology | 5 |
| SOCY 10 | Issues and Problems in American Society | 5 |
| SOCY 15 | World Society | 5 |
Quantitative Competency for GCH*
| BIOE 80S | Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics | 5 |
| CMMU 30 | Numbers and Social Justice | 5 |
| LALS 15 | Truth, Justice, and Statistics | 5 |
| STAT 5 | Statistics | 5 |
| STAT 7 | Statistical Methods for the Biological, Environmental, and Health Sciences | 5 |
| STAT 7L | Statistical Methods for the Biological, Environmental, and Health Sciences Laboratory | 2 |
| STAT 17 | Statistical Methods for Business and Economics | 5 |
| STAT 17L | Statistical Methods for Business and Economics Laboratory | 2 |
| STAT 010 | Introduction to Statistics (UCR) | |
| STAT 011 | Introduction to Statistics (UCR) | |
*Revised: 5/30/23.
Linguistic competency for GCH (complete or test-out of one of the listed courses)
Upper-Division Courses
Upper-division GCH requirements
All students are required to complete and pass two common core courses: the first, a course in Community Analysis for Global and Community Health; the second, a course chosen from the list in Social Analysis for Global and Community Health.
Required Common Core Courses.
Requirement 1
One course in Community Analysis for Global and Community Health:
| CMMU 165 | Community Analysis for Global Health | 5 |
Requirement 2
One course in Social Analysis for Global and Community Health:
| ANTH 134 | Medical Anthropology: An Introduction | 5 |
| SOCY 146 | Introduction to Population Health | 5 |
| POLI 186
/LGST 186
| Global Health Politics | 5 |
Six upper-division electives from the four GCH "context" areas
The following four groups of context courses constitute the core upper-division courses of the GCH B.A. One course must be taken from each of the four GCH context areas, plus two additional electives from any of the areas. Lecture/Lab combinations count as one course.*
*Revised:5/30/23.
Area I: Biological and environmental contexts
Area II: Social, cultural and historical contexts
| ANTH 110T | Motherhood in American Culture | 5 |
| ANTH 110Y | Feeding California | 5 |
| ANTH 129 | Beyond Borders: Other Globalizations and Histories of Interconnection | 5 |
| ANTH 134 | Medical Anthropology: An Introduction | 5 |
| ANTH 146 | Anthropology and the Environment | 5 |
| ANTH 161 | The Anthropology of Food | 5 |
| ANTH 161S | Anthropology of Food, Abroad | 5 |
| CMMU 156 | Politics of Food and Health | 5 |
| CMMU 160 | Public Health | 5 |
| CMMU 161 | Gender Health and Justice | 5 |
| CMMU 163 | Health Care Inequalities | 5 |
| CMMU 164 | Health Justice in Conflict | 5 |
| ECON 104 | Is There Truth in Numbers: The Role of Statistics in Economics | 5 |
| ECON 120 | Development Economics | 5 |
| FMST 124 | Technology, Science, and Race Across the Americas | 5 |
| FMST 125 | Race, Sex, and Technology | 5 |
| FMST 133 | Science and the Body | 5 |
| FMST 189 | Advanced Topics in Feminist Theory | 5 |
| HIS 101D | World History of Science | 5 |
| HIS 101F | Global Environmental History | 5 |
| HIS 149 | Plants, People, and the Making of Modern Southeast Asia | 5 |
| HIS 151 | History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from Antiquity to the Enlightenment | 5 |
| HIS 151A | Medicine and the Body in the Colonial World | 5 |
| LALS 100 | Concepts and Theories in Latin American and Latina/o Studies | 5 |
| LALS 112 | Immigration and Assimilation | 5 |
| LALS 143 | Race and Ethnicity | 5 |
| LALS 151 | Race & Mobility | 5 |
| LALS 152 | Consumer Cultures Between the Americas | 5 |
| LALS 155 | Latin American and Latino Youth Movements | 5 |
| LALS 175 | Migration, Gender, and Health | 5 |
| LALS 178 | Gender, Transnationalism, and Globalization | 5 |
| SOCY 121 | Sociology of Health and Medicine | 5 |
| SOCY 121G | Genomics and Society | 5 |
| SOCY 132 | Sociology of Science and Technology | 5 |
| SOCY 143 | Black Botanical Medicine in the Americas | 5 |
| SOCY 147 | Health in a Changing America | 5 |
| SOCY 153 | Sociology of Emotions | 5 |
| PSYC 140G | Women's Lives in Context | 5 |
| PSYC 140L | Women's Bodies and Psychological Well-Being | 5 |
| PSYC 144 | Latinx Psychology | 5 |
| PSYC 172 | Health Psychology | 5 |
| PSYC 178 | Nutritional Psychology | 5 |
Area III: Institutional and policy contexts
| SOCY 128M
/LGST 128M
| International Law and Global Justice | 5 |
| ECON 156 | Health Economics and Policy | 5 |
| ENVS 110 | Institutions, the Environment, and Economic Systems | 5 |
| ENVS 130B | Justice and Sustainability in Agriculture | 5 |
| ENVS 143 | Sustainable Development: Economy, Policy, and Environment | 5 |
| ENVS 147 | Global Environmental Justice | 5 |
| ENVS 158 | Political Ecology and Social Change | 5 |
| ENVS 172 | Environmental Risks and Public Policy | 5 |
| HIS 151B | Drugs in World History | 5 |
| LALS 143J | Global Political Economy | 5 |
| LALS 172 | Visualizing Human Rights | 5 |
| LGST 108 | Gender, Sexuality, and Law | 5 |
| LGST 137 | International Environmental Law and Policy | 5 |
| LGST 173
/POLI 173
| Disability, Law, & Politics | 5 |
| POLI 160B
/LGST 160B
| International Law | 5 |
| POLI 166 | Politics of Migration | 5 |
| POLI 175
/LGST 175
| Human Rights | 5 |
| POLI 187 | Decolonial Global Health: A View from the Middle East and Africa | 5 |
| POLI 189 | Pandemics, Politics, and Global and Community Health | 5 |
| POLI 189B | Global & Community Health Policy in Practice | 5 |
| SOCY 127
/LGST 127
| Drugs in Society | 5 |
| SOCY 128I
/LGST 128I
| Race and Law | 5 |
| SOCY 128M
/LGST 128M
| International Law and Global Justice | 5 |
| SOCY 135 | Healing Justice | 5 |
| SOCY 185 | Environmental Inequality | 5 |
| GLBHTH 150 | Migration & Health (UCLA) | |
| PBHLTH 108 | Women's Health, Gender & Empmt (UCB) | |
| PH 114 | Migration and Health (UCM) | |
Area IV: Methods, skills & humanities-informed analysis
| AM 115 | Stochastic Modeling in Biology | 5 |
| ANTH 107A | Methods and Research in Biological Anthropology: Genetics | 5 |
| JRLC 136 | Methodologies of Critical Praxis | 5 |
| ECON 104 | Is There Truth in Numbers: The Role of Statistics in Economics | 5 |
| ENVS 104A | Introduction to Environmental Field Methods | 5 |
| ENVS 104L | Field Methods Laboratory | 2 |
| ENVS 133 | Agroecology Practicum | 5 |
| HAVC 141N | Data Cultures: Art, Technology, and the Politics of Visual Representation | 5 |
| LALS 126 | Digit@l Americ@s/Digit@l Latin@s | 5 |
| LALS 128
/OAKS 128
| Latino Media in the U.S | 5 |
| LALS 186
/SOCY 186
| Field Research Methods | 5 |
| LALS 187F | Human Rights Investigations Lab | 2 |
| LIT 121O | Body Theories and Embodied Poetics in Contemporary American Poetry | 5 |
| LIT 133G | The Nuclear Pacific | 5 |
| LIT 139A | Topics in American Literature and Culture | 5 |
| LIT 160C | Cruelty: Enjoying the Pain of Others | 5 |
| LIT 167I | The Enviromental Humanities | 5 |
| LIT 167G | Reading the Weather: Literature and Global Climate Change | 5 |
| SOCY 123 | Global and Transnational Perspectives in Science and Technology Studies | 5 |
| CAT 125R | Pblc Rhetoric Prct Comm Online | |
| CMN 150V | Computational Social Science (UCD) | |
| CMN 152V | Social Science with Online Data (UCD) | |
| COMM W146 | DECEPTION COMM (UCSB) | |
| PUBHLTH 174 | Global Health Ethics (UCI) | |
Comprehensive Requirement
The comprehensive requirement for the GCH B.A. is satisfied by completing the same courses as those required for the Disciplinary Communication requirements.
Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement
Students of every major at UC Santa Cruz must satisfy that major’s upper-division Disciplinary Communication (DC) requirement. The 7-credit DC requirement for the GCH B.A. is satisfied by completing one of the following course combination options:
Option 1
Both of the following courses:
| GCH 190 | Global and Community Health Task Force | 5 |
| GCH 195 | Global and Community Health Communication | 2 |
Option 2
Both of the following courses.
| GCH 195 | Global and Community Health Communication | 2 |
| GCH 199A | Global and Community Health Senior Thesis | 5 |
Option 3
All three of the following courses
| GCH 195 | Global and Community Health Communication | 2 |
| GCH 199A | Global and Community Health Senior Thesis | 5 |
| GCH 199B | Global and Community Health Senior Thesis B | 5 |
Planners
The tables below are for informational purposes and do not reflect all university, general education, and credit requirements. See Undergraduate Graduation Requirements for more information.
Plan One for Incoming Frosh
| |
Fall |
Winter |
Spring |
| 1st (frosh) |
GCH 1 |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 1 |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 3 |
| |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 2 |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 4 |
| |
|
|
| 2nd (soph) |
Social Analysis for
GCH Req |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 3rd (junior) |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 4th (senior) |
CMMU 165 |
GCH 190 or GCH 199A |
GCH 195 |
| Upper-Div GCH Area |
|
|
| |
|
|
Plan Two for Incoming Transfer Students
| |
Fall |
Winter |
Spring |
| 3rd (junior) |
GCH 1 |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 3 |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
Lower-Div GCH
Competency 1 |
Lower-Div GCH Competency 4 |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
Lower-Div GCH
Competency 2 |
Upper Div GCH Area |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
| 4th (senior) |
CMMU 165 |
GCH 190 or GCH 199A |
GCH 195 |
Social Analysis for
GCH Req |
Upper-Div GCH Area |
|
| Upper-Div GCH Area |
|
|