Health Sciences

Mental disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia, are prevalent across the globe, significantly impacting individuals and communities. This course explores both the understanding of mental disorders and the psychological treatments used to address them. The first half of the course introduces students to the clinical presentation, etiology, and diagnostic frameworks of various mental disorders, and these disorders are examined through multiple perspectives, including developmental, sociocultural, neurobiological, and psychodynamic approaches. The second half of the course explores a range of psychological treatments, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic Therapy, Humanistic Therapy, and other therapeutic approaches, focusing on their application to specific mental health conditions. Importantly, this course involves research methods in psychology, mental health, and psychotherapy. 

This course explores the ways in which life is lived in relation to experiences of war, violent events, and war-related afflictions and displacement. While students follow and discuss the debates of researchers who have tried to determine and verify the effects of violent conflict on the mental health of those affected by focusing on concepts like war trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), students challenge conventional and universal understandings of trauma, and disease-centered approaches to traumatic experience and health interventions. While this course is heavily informed on comparative history, both of psychiatry and of wars, it engages with current affairs and public health concerns. It considers mental health as both a medical and a socio-political matter. 

This course examines the role of evaluation and epidemiology in health. It introduces key evaluation and epidemiology principles and explores the relevance of these across various health issues and settings. 

This course examines health and wellbeing with an emphasis on communicable and non-communicable diseases including long-term conditions, health literacy and health promotion.

This course examines new and emerging challenges and opportunities in health and social services, and immerses students in areas of innovation and change including partnerships with services users, responding to increasing demand in mental health services and opportunities afforded by digital health and emerging technologies.

This course examines key theories and approaches used to understand and influence health and wellbeing. Consideration will be given to the types of questions that are asked by health psychology researchers, and the different methods and tools used to deepen understandings of health and illness in the social world.

This course explores public and personal health infrastructure with a focus on Egypt. It includes an optional service-learning component in which students become aware of their role in community health issues. The course discusses the effect of cultural and social-economic conditions on public health, community and governmental services to protect and improve the health of populations, and methods of transmission and prevention of selected diseases. It considers current and emerging health concerns in the region and worldwide, preventive measures for current and emerging health concerns, and how health issues impact society. It also practices efficiently writing and presenting health issues to the public.

 

This course examines concepts and perspectives in mental health and distress, including social perspectives and service-user-based knowledge, with regard to issues of human rights and social justice. This course includes historical perspectives; ideologies of institutional and community care; key concepts in mental health; social and intersectional perspectives; service-user/survivor knowledge; epistemic and social injustice; Mad studies; and human rights in mental health.

This course covers critical food safety issues in Taiwan, from foodborne chemicals; foodborne micro-organisms; health behavior policies; climate change and food safety/security; food fraud and terrorist attacks; genetically modified and emerging foods, to regulatory tools related to food safety. It analyzes contemporary issues in food safety from different perspectives via dialogue and critical thinking.  

This course explores social, cultural, economic, and structural factors influencing individual and population health risks and outcomes beyond predisposed biological factors and access to healthcare. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach to critically examine the complex emerging public health problems, their causes, and potential solutions. Students engage in contemporary technological, ethical, political, and cultural debates in health, healing, and well-being. Through the analysis of these factors and the development of strategies to address them, students gain the knowledge to promote health, and develop critical insights into health equity and strategies to address social factors for improved health for all, for a just society.