Social & Behavioral Sciences

• SPH SB 860: Strategies for Public Health Advocacy
  This course is for advanced MPH students. It will explore the role public health practitioners can play in advocating for programs and policies to improve the public's health that have been demonstrated to be effective through peer reviewed scientific research. Students will analyze the process of advocating for policy and program change based on scientific evidence at the city, state and federal level through the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
• SPH SB 871: Advanced Topics in Social & Behavioral Sciences
  This seminar is offered on an occasional basis and provides an opportunity to explore special topics in social and behavioral sciences at an advanced level. The seminars may be offered by SB faculty, visiting scholars, or faculty or practitioners from other institutions. Seminars may be offered on a one time basis, or, in some cases, offered as a trial for a new course. In Spring 2010, the topic is: Nasty Habits: Public Health and Private Choices
• SPH SB 888: Proposal Development in Advanced Intervention and Evaluation Research
  The purpose of this seminar is to provide DrPH students and advanced MPH students with the skills for writing proposals and conducting rigorous evaluations for social and behavioral topics. The seminar is comprised of three sections: descriptive epidemiology, biology, and social determinants of a public health problem; the development of an intervention program for the public health problem described in the first section; and the development of a rigorous trial of the intervention developed in the second section. For each of the sections, students will write a proposal similar to a doctoral dissertation or foundation grant proposal. The seminar is structured around group discussion of a series of weekly exercise assignments and one-on-one meetings with faculty. The final exercise is designed to help students develop a Background and Significance section and a Research Methods section, pursuant to the specifications of a grant application for the NIH. Trainees who want to learn how to write proposals, both for dissertations and for submission for funding, should consider taking this course.
• SPH SB 921: Directed Studies in Social & Behavioral Sciences
  Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar’s Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH SB 922: Directed Research in Social & Behavioral Sciences
  Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar’s Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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