Module manager: Professor Shane Doyle
Email: s.d.doyle@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
N/A
N/A
This module is not approved as an Elective
What is global health? Is it about the development of ideas in one location and their transfer to another? Or is it about national and sub-national units coming together to work with different forms of international governance to develop and implement health programmes? Clearly, definitions, planning and practice depend on perspective, which will be studied via critical historical, political and international relations analyses in this module which covers the history of global health from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Starting at the late 19th century, this module examines the development of international ideas and actions in health – from its connections to European and US imperialism, to post-war political decolonisation, to the impact of newly independent polities around the world with a new multilateral infrastructure involving the United Nations and its specialist agencies. Apart from critically examining the development and implementation of policies, we will also look at community engagement and feedback, which often redesigned projects and programmes in unimaginable ways. Here, an examination of civil society resistance and support will be studied in complex ways, in the understanding that both state and society were multi-layered. This will allow a complex understanding of decolonisation, where the production of attendant knowledge and political processes were not necessarily always centred on Europe and North America. We will end by discussing different kinds of and trends within global health, which will be seen both as a collaborative and competitive space where low and middle incomes countries often retained significant power through control over sites of implementation. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
The module aims to:
- Offer a specialist investigation of the history of international ideas about health from the late-nineteenth century to the present day.
- Help students understand the long-run development and implementation of policy and diplomacy relating to global health.
- Highlight importance of a multitude of actors, agencies, and communities in international health practice and diplomacy.
1. Assess critically narratives surrounding the role of global health diplomacy and global health diplomatic interventions.
2. Identify and analyse the roles of a variety of diplomatic actors, at all levels of state and society;
3. Evaluate coherently global, international and national health diplomatic practices in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries with concrete historical examples and case studies.
4. Engage with the most recent literature on global health histories, medical history, international history, and international relations and diplomacy in a critical and nuanced manner.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
5. Evaluate and assess different arguments and evidence and use evidence critically to form arguments and ideas.
6. Present complex arguments and ideas, both in written and spoken form.
7 Search for, evaluate and use appropriate and relevant information sources to strengthen the quality of academic work and independent research, whilst also developing a critical understanding of contemporary global health.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Private study hours | 279.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
You will be required to submit for formative feedback an annotated bibliography. This bibliography will consist of twelve key texts, which relate to the topic of essay 1. You will provide brief notes for each text explaining the texts’ historiographical significance and relevance to the essay question or core arguments. The bibliography will be submitted in time for the formative feedback to be provided before the submission of essay 1.
In addition, you will receive written feedback on your first essay from tutors also that you can implement any lessons learned in your end-of-module essay.
You will also have the opportunity to meet with your tutor for one-to-one meetings to get feedback on your approach to each assignment prior to the deadlines.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Essay | 30 |
| Coursework | Essay | 70 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 28/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team