Ecological Determinants of Health in Society Concentration (54 credits)

This program is open only to students in the B.Arts Faculty Program Environment.

There is a similar Concentration (with two streams: Cellular; and Population) offered in the Faculty of Science, and in the Faculty of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences in the Major Environment.

How does the environment affect human health and health policy?

An understanding of the interface between human health and environment depends not only on an appreciation of the role of social sciences in the design, implementation, and monitoring of interventions. Demographic patterns and urbanization, economic forces, ethics, indigenous knowledge and culture, and an understanding of how social change can be effected are all critical if we are to be successful in our efforts to assure health of individuals and societies in the future. Recognizing the key role that nutritional status plays in maintaining a healthy body, and the increasing importance of infection as a health risk linked intimately with the environment, this Domain prepares students to contribute to the solution of problems of nutrition and infection by tying the relevant natural sciences to the social sciences.

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite Courses for Program

To graduate from the Faculty Program in Environment, students are required to complete two pre-/co-requisite courses. These courses should be completed by the end of your U1 year. These 100-level courses, if taken exclusively for the purpose of fulfilling this program pre-/co-requisite requirement, may be taken using the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Option. Contact the Program Adviser of the Bieler School of Environment for more information.

Numeracy course:
One of the following calculus courses -
MATH 139 - Calculus 1 with Precalculus
MATH 140 - Calculus 1 or equivalent (e.g., CEGEP objective 00UN)

AND Science course:
One of the following science courses -
BIOL 111 - Principles:Organismal Biology
AEBI 120 - General Biology (M)
or equivalent (e.g., CEGEP objectives Biology 00UK or equivalent)


See also Information for students for details concerning:

  • Majors and Concentrations
  • Suggested First Year courses
  • Taking courses Outside your Faculty or on the "Other" campus (Science students, in particular, need to be aware of the Restricted Courses list)
  • ENVR course sections - beware!
  • Numeracy requirement for B.A. Faculty Program Environment students
  • Statistics course(s) overlap
  • Your Faculty's Student Affairs Office


Program Requirements

NOTE: You are required to take a maximum of 30 credits at the 200 level and a minimum of 12 credits at the 400 level or higher in this program. This includes Core and Required courses.

Core: Required Courses (18 credits)

ENVR 200 - The Global Environment
ENVR 201 - Society,Environ&Sustainability
ENVR 202 - The Evolving Earth
ENVR 203 - Knowledge, Ethics&Environment
ENVR 301 - Environmental Research Design
ENVR 400 - Environmental Thought


Core: Complementary Course — Senior Research Project (3 credits*)

AEBI 427 - Barbados Interdisc Project (6 cr) (M) (in Barbados)
ENVR 401 - Environmental Research (3 cr)
ENVR 451 - Research in Panama (6 cr) (in Panama)
FSCI 444 - Barbados Research Project (6 cr) (in Barbados)
* Only 3 credits will be applied to the program; extra credits will count as electives.


Concentration: Required Courses - Health and Environment (6 credits)

GEOG 221 - Environment and Health (not offered; ask Program Adviser for substitution)
or NRSC 221 - Environment and Health (M) (not offered; ask Program Adviser for substitution)

and GEOG 303 - Health Geography


Concentration: Complementary Courses - Fundamentals (12 credits)

Maximum 3 credits from any one category:

Health and Infection
GEOG 403 - Global Health & Envir. Change (not offered 2024-2025)
GEOG 493 - Health & Environment in Africa (in Africa)
GEOG 503 - Advanced Topics in Health Geog
PARA 410 - Environment and Infection (M)
PPHS 529 - Global Env Hlth&Burden/Disease (U3 students only)

Economics
AGEC 200 - Principles of Microeconomics (M)
ECON 208 - Microeconomic Analysis&Applic
ECON 225 - Economics of the Environment

Nutrition
EDKP 292 - Nutrition and Wellness
NUTR 207 - Nutrition and Health (M)

Statistics
AEMA 310 - Statistical Methods 1 (M)
GEOG 202 - Statistics & Spatial Analysis
MATH 203 - Principles of Statistics 1
SOCI 350 - Statistics in Social Research
or equivalent


Concentration: Complementary Courses - List A (9 credits)

Maximum 3 credits from any one category:

Health and Society
SOCI 225 - Medicine&Health in Mod Society
SOCI 234 - Population & Society (not offered 2024-2025)
SOCI 309 - Health and Illness
SOCI 331 - Population and Environment (not offered 2024-2025)
SOCI 515 - Medicine and Society (not offered 2024-2025)

Hydrology and Climate
*Note: You may take BREE 217 or GEOG 322, but not both.
BREE 217 - Hydrology and Water Resources (M)
GEOG 321 - Climatic Environments
GEOG 322 - Environmental Hydrology

Agriculture
AEBI 425 - Tropical Energy and Food (M) (in Barbados)
AGRI 340 - Princ of Ecological Agricult (M)
AGRI 411 - Global Issues on Dev, Food&Agr (M)
AGRI 550 - Sustained Tropical Agriculture (M) (offered alternate years, in Panama)
NUTR 341 - Global Food Security (M)

Decision Making
AGEC 333 - Resource Economics (M)
ECON 440 - Health Economics (not offered 2024-2025)
PHIL 343 - Biomedical Ethics
RELG 270 - Religious Ethics & the Environ

Biology Fundamentals
*Note: You may take BIOL 308 or ENVB 305, but not both.
AEBI 210 - Organisms 1 (M)
AEBI 211 - Organisms 2 (M)
BIOL 200 - Molecular Biology
BIOL 308 - Ecological Dynamics
ENVB 305 - Population & Community Ecology (M)
LSCI 211 - Biochemistry 1 (M)

Development and Ecology
ANTH 212 - Anthropology of Development
ANTH 339 - Ecological Anthropology
ANTH 512 - Political Ecology
ENVR 421 - Mtl:Envr Hist & Sustainability (offered alternate years, May course)
GEOG 300 - Human Ecology in Geography (not offered)
GEOG 310 - Development and Livelihoods (not offered)
SOCI 254 - Development&Underdevelopment
SOCI 365 - Health and Development (not offered 2024-2025)


Concentration: Complementary Courses - List B (6 credits)

Maximum 3 credits from any one category:

Advanced Ecology
* Note: you may take BIOL 451 or NRSC 451, but not both.
AEBI 421 - Trop. Horticultural Ecology (M) (in Barbados)
BIOL 451 - Res in Ecol&Develop in Africa (in Africa)
BIOL 465 - Conservation Biology
BIOL 553 - Neotropical Environments (in Panama)
ENVB 410 - Ecosystem Ecology (M)
ENVB 500 - Advanced Topics Ecotoxicology (M)(offered Fall 2023 and alternate years)
NRSC 451 - Res in Ecol&Develop in Africa (M) (in Africa)

Pollution Control and Pest Management
ENTO 350 - Insect Biology and Control (M) (not offered 2024-2025)
ENTO 352 - Biocontrol of Pest Insects (M) (not offered 2024-2025)
NRSC 333 - Pollution and Bioremediation (M)
PARA 515 - Water, Health and Sanitation (M)

Techniques and Management
* Note: you may take ENVB 529 or GEOG 201, but not both.
AEBI 423 - Sustainable Land Use (M) (in Barbados)
ENVB 529 - GIS for Natural Resource Mgmt (M)
ENVR 422 - Mtl Urban Sustainability Anal (offered alternate years, May course)
GEOG 201 - Intro Geo-Information Science
GEOG 302 - Environmental Management 1  
GEOG 404 - Environmental Management 2 (in Africa)
WILD 421 - Wildlife Conservation (M)
Or, advanced quantitative methods course (with approval of Adviser)

Social Change and Influences
ANTH 227 - Medical Anthropology
ENVR 430 - The Economics of Well-Being (not offered)
GEOG 340 - Sustain. in the Caribbean
GEOG 406 - Human Dimensions Clim. Change (not offered 2024-2025)
GEOG 514 - Clim Change Vulnblty & Adapt
HIST 249 - Health&the Healer in West Hist
SOCI 307 - Globalization

Immunology and Infectious Disease
*Note: you may take MIMM 413 or PARA 424, but not both.
MIMM 214 - Intro Immun: Elem of Immunity
MIMM 314 - Intermediate Immunology
MIMM 324 - Fundamental Virology
MIMM 413 - Parasitology
PARA 424 - Fundamental Parasitology (M)
PARA 438 - Immunology (M)
PPHS 501 - Population Health&Epidemiology

Populations and Place
*Note: you may take ANTH 451 or GEOG 451, but not both.
ANTH 451 - Res in Society & Dev in Africa (in Africa)
EDKP 204 - Health Education
GEOG 451 - Res in Society & Dev in Africa (in Africa)
GEOG 498 - Humans in Tropical Envirnmnts (offered alternate years; in Panama)
HIST 335 - Science and Medicine in Canada
HIST 510 - Enviro. Hist. of L. Am (Field) (offered alternate years; in Panama)
SOCI 520 - Migration and Immigrant Groups
SOCI 525 - HlthCare Systems in Comp Persp
SOCI 550 - Developing Societies (not offered)
Back to top