Health and Human Biology

专业介绍

Health and Human Biology is an interdisciplinary concentration that provides a rigorous foundation in the biological sciences with substantive course work in humanities and social sciences within a subfield of Human Health and Disease.

The program includes: background courses, biology core courses, a set of theme courses, and a Senior Capstone activity. Background courses provide the essential foundations in chemistry, mathematics, methods, and basic biology. These support the Biology core, which is comprised of a flexible menu of intermediate and advanced courses. A required portion of the Biology core is Genetics, a cornerstone of human biology and its interface with other fields. The Biology core underscores the related coursework within the Health and Disease Theme. The Theme courses are social science and humanities courses that form a cohesive, thoughtful grouping. Theme groupings must be approved by the advisor. A required senior capstone course or activity builds on the program’s focus.

Student Goals

Students in this concentration will:

• Pursue a multidisciplinary course of study that reveals the diversity of factors that influence human health from a combination of biological, behavioral, social, political, cultural and/or environmental perspectives.
• Acquire foundational knowledge related to the integration of biology, mathematics and chemistry that are essential to understanding fundamental life processes.
• Acquire core concepts of the pillars of biology: genetics and evolution, interactions between organisms, and structure-function relationships.
• Demonstrate how qualitative and quantitative methods are used and interpreted in scholarly work on topics of relevance to Health and Human Biology.
• Propose and pursue a self directed cohesive course of study in one of four thematic areas where Brown has strong scholarship: 1) social determinants of health; 2) mind, brain, behavior; 3) global health; 4) planetary health.