Program Overview

Public Health Courses

The Public Health program offers a wide range of courses that cater to the needs of students interested in pursuing a career in public health. These courses are designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and practices of public health.

Course Descriptions

• PUH 101: Transitioning to College, Exploring Public Health. This First Year Experience (FYE) course is designed for students majoring in or interested in Public Health. It introduces freshmen to the tools and techniques that will enhance their transition to college and improve their academic success.
• PUH 201: Introduction to Public Health. This course reviews the history and philosophy underlying public health, introduces core concepts and values in public health, and highlights the essential functions of public health in society.
• PUH 202: Introduction to Global Health. This course introduces concepts and considerations relevant to public health in resource-constrained international settings while critically assessing historic, current, and projected efforts to improve population health globally.
• PUH 204: Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health. This course examines the social and behavioral factors that impact human health at the individual, community, and population levels.
• PUH 205: Adolescent Health. This undergraduate course provides an overview of critical health issues in adolescence and reviews the potential of emerging perspectives to advance adolescent health and promote positive youth development.
• PUH 210: Agent, Host, Environment. This course provides the scientific basis for the study of public health, examining how various agents affect the biology of human hosts and the role of environmental factors in shaping the interaction between agents and hosts.
• PUH 220: Environmental Factors in Public Health. This course examines the sources, exposure routes, and health outcomes associated with biological, chemical, and physical agents in the environment.
• PUH 230: Public Health Data and Methods. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the concepts and tools related to collecting and analyzing public health data.
• PUH 240: Profession of Public Health. The purpose of this course is to assist students in planning and pursuit of their career goals, providing them with tangible skills including ethics of public health, oral and written communication, personal presentation skills, leadership styles, and project management.
• PUH 250: Biostatistics. This course introduces the statistical approaches most commonly used in public health, medicine, and other health-related fields.
• PUH 251: Biostatistics Honors. Students gain a thorough understanding of basic analysis methods, elementary concepts, statistical models, and applications of probability.
• PUH 270: Homelessness, Housing, and Health. This service learning course explores homelessness, housing, and health, discussing the concept of homelessness, its impact on health, and multi-level interventions to prevent and end homelessness.
• PUH 275: Health Equity, Disparities, and Social Justice in Alabama. This course covers the concept of health equity and a broad overview of health disparities in the Birmingham metro area and across the state of Alabama.
• PUH 280: Introduction to Sustainability: Shaping Our Shared Future. This course examines placed-based examples of successes and challenges in pursuing a more sustainable present and future.
• PUH 292: Seminars in Public Health. Seminar explores current public health issues and topics locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
• PUH 299: Special Topics in Public Health. This special topics course covers emerging issues or specialized content not represented in the main curriculum.
• PUH 302: Epidemiology. This course introduces the central role of epidemiology in public health research and practice.
• PUH 305: Public Health Practice. This course provides an overview of how public health practitioners work with communities to improve health outcomes.
• PUH 307: Public Health Systems. This course provides a comprehensive overview of the characteristics and structures of the US Health System.
• PUH 320: Global Health Service Learning. This course provides students with an opportunity to apply principles of interprofessional collaboration, community partnerships, and global health.
• PUH 321: Workplace Environment. This course explores known physical and chemical hazards found in the workplace.
• PUH 322: Environmental Justice and Ethics. Students investigate the disproportionate burdens of environmental contamination and the resulting health disparities affecting communities of color.
• PUH 331: The Rise of Noncommunicable Diseases Globally. This course provides an introduction to selected key topics in chronic diseases burden endured globally.
• PUH 333: Food, Water, and Air. The service learning course examines food, water, air, with a focus on the complex role they play in sustainable human development.
• PUH 335: Environmental Health and Local Communities. This course explores current environmental health issues and how they impact the health of residents in the community.
• PUH 341: Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Management. This course provides participants with an understanding of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP), exercise development, and evaluation.
• PUH 342: Public Health Disasters. This course is a hybrid of environmental disasters and history and consequences of world disasters.
• PUH 350: Intermediate Biostatistics. This intermediate-level course provides students with hands-on experience conducting analyses using statistical software.
• PUH 354: Scratching the Iche: Introduction to Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. This course is designed to focus specifically on concepts involved with performing epidemiological surveillance and research within a hospital setting.
• PUH 360: Cuisine, Culture, and Public Health: A Tour Through The Food Industry. This course tours the world to explore the interactions between business, cultures, food traditions, and public health.
• PUH 361: A Survey of Public Health Topics in Film. This course combines feature films, television shows, documentaries, and other social media with discussions of relevant public health issues.
• PUH 391: Directed Study in Public Health. This experiential learning opportunity is open to undergraduate students interested in conducting an in-depth exploration of an approved Public Health topic.
• PUH 392: Seminar in Public Health. Seminar explores current public health issues and topics locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
• PUH 398: Undergraduate Research in Public Health. This experiential learning opportunity involves participation in a research project under the supervision of an SOPH faculty mentor.
• PUH 399: Special Topics in Public Health. This special topics course covers emerging issues or specialized content not represented in the main curriculum.
• PUH 403: Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Health. This course introduces students to the inter-relationships between migration and health.
• PUH 404: LGBTQ Health and Wellbeing Service Learning. The service-learning course examines LGBTQ health and wellbeing, enabling students to put their knowledge into practice.
• PUH 405: Managing Public Health Programs. This course is designed to prepare future managers and leaders in the public health arena.
• PUH 421: Nature vs. Nurture: Genes, Environment and Health. This didactic lecture course examines how components of the world around us impact our lives and health.
• PUH 422: Fundamentals of Toxicology. Basic principles in toxicology are covered, including dose-response relationships and target organ toxicity.
• PUH 424: Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene. The overall goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the field of industrial hygiene.
• PUH 425: Fundamentals of Occupational Health and Safety. This course provides students with the basic knowledge in Occupational Health and Safety practice.
• PUH 426: Safety and Health Standards & Regulations. Occupational health and safety standards are specific rules that establish methods and practices to protect employees from exposure to hazards.
• PUH 427: Safety Program Management. The goal of safety programs is to facilitate the evaluation of workplace practices, exposures to occupational hazards, injury/illness protection measures, and incident/accident prevention.
• PUH 432: Global Health Cases. This course uses case studies to examine the impact of health conditions that transcend national borders.
• PUH 434: Global Communicable Disease Challenges. This course is designed to introduce students to the major infectious diseases of public health importance globally.
• PUH 436: Maternal and Child Health in Africa and Asia. This course discusses the burden of disease among the maternal and child health population in certain areas of the world.
• PUH 441: Public Health Law and Policy. This course is an introductory course in public health law and policy designed for undergraduate students in public health.
• PUH 442: Children and Families: Issues in Health, Poverty, and Policies. This interdisciplinary course provides students with basic knowledge about current issues in health and society that impact the Maternal and Child Health population.
• PUH 450: Statistical Programming and Database Analysis. This class provides an introduction into the commonly used statistical programs and teaches the fundamentals of database design.
• PUH 491: Directed Study in Public Health. This experiential learning opportunity is open to junior and senior level undergraduate students.
• PUH 492: Seminar in Public Health. Seminar explores current public health issues and topics locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
• PUH 494: Internship/Fieldwork in Public Health. Students who meet eligibility requirements may take three hours of academic credit per semester for participating in an advisor-approved internship experience.
• PUH 495: Public Health Capstone Experience. This course provides students with the opportunity to apply public health competencies through engagement, study, and reflection.
• PUH 496: Exploring Population Health. This course provides students an opportunity to learn about both historical and contemporary public health issues and their effects on population health.
• PUH 498: Undergraduate Research in Public Health. This experiential learning opportunity involves participation in a research project under the supervision of an SOPH faculty mentor.
• PUH 499: Special Topics in Public Health. This special topics course covers emerging issues or specialized content not represented in the main curriculum.