Integrated Health Studies Option, BA - Individually Designed Major
Introduction
Please click here to see Individually Designed Major department information.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Integrated Health Studies Option provides students with the opportunity to design an individualized major that meets their unique needs, and which results in a B.A.
Integrated Health Studies is designed for students who are interested in health from the perspective of the liberal arts and sciences and who seek interdisciplinary training focused around particular health topics. An interdisciplinary approach to health through the liberal arts and sciences seeks to create broadly-educated citizens who can apply critical thinking, information literacy, analysis, and independent problem solving to a wide variety of situations. Students can choose from a selection of health-focused minors and certificates that they combine with interdisciplinary clusters, which permits deeper understanding of a focused health topic. The track supports students seeking positions in:
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Health education
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Health administration
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Community health
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Non-profit health organizations
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Environmental health
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Community organizing
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Social work
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Occupational health
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Health policy
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Gerontology
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And more
These degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their major advisor and CLAS advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.
Program Delivery
- This is an on-campus program.
Declaring This Major
- Click here to go to information about declaring a major.
General Requirements
To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the areas below, in addition to their individually designed requirements.
- CU Denver General Graduation Requirements
- CU Denver Core Curriculum
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Graduation Requirements
- Click here for information about Academic Policies
Program Requirements
The IDM program plan must comply with the following policies:
- Students must complete a minimum of 39 credit hours from the approved courses.
- Students must complete a minimum of nine upper-division (3000-level and above) credit hours in the approved cluster area and must complete all of the upper-division requirements for the minor or certificate they choose to pair with the cluster.
- Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses that apply to the major and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to major requirements.
- Students must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours with CU Denver faculty from the approved cluster area and must complete all of the residency requirements for the minor or certificate they choose to pair with the cluster.
Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations
- Students combine one of the identified CLAS minors or certificates with one of the topical clusters to make up their major areas. Students will earn the minor/ certificate they use to form a cluster for their major, as long as they have completed all of the requirements for that program.
- Students can double-count a maximum of one course across their areas (in addition to an introductory course).
- Students must take courses from at least two different disciplines in their topical cluster.
- Students are required to take two courses as an introduction to their major. If an introductory course is also part of a student's topical cluster, a student may count one introductory course as part of that area's credits.
- Note: Some courses in each cluster require prerequisites that must be met making them a 21 credit cluster. Please see course descriptions.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the following program requirements: | 39 | |
| Complete two of the following courses: 1 | 6 | |
| Introduction to Health Communication | ||
| Foundations of Health Humanities | ||
| Introduction to Public Health | ||
| Medical Sociology | ||
| Complete one approved CLAS minor or certificate: | 15 | |
| Complete a minimum of 15 credit hours, with nine at the upper division level, in at least one approved topical cluster: | 15 | |
| Complete the Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone Course. 2 | 3 | |
| Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone | ||
- 1
If an introductory course is also part of a student's chosen area, a student may count one introductory course as part of that area's credits.
- 2
Taken toward the end of your career (junior/senior year.)
Public Health Minor
The undergraduate minor in Public Health is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the social, cultural, and biological dimensions of health. The minor curriculum provides students with the intellectual and methodological tools needed to understand the joint bio-cultural determinants and contexts of health, health care and public health.
Health Humanities Minor
The Health Humanities minor critically analyzes historical and contemporary connections among health, medicine, and society. The minor deepens understandings of disease and wellness, pain and suffering, personhood, the nature of death and dying, embodied experience, and the limits of technological knowledge. Students explore the human dimensions of medical practice and how they interact with lived experience.
Health Communication Undergraduate Certificate
The Health Communication Undergraduate Certificate seeks to impart the knowledge and skills necessary for creating, analyzing, and assessing health communications in a diverse and global world, where health occupies an increasingly prominent portion of our public life. This certificate provides students with a theoretically rich and practically relevant education in how health messages are generated, negotiated, and understood.
Community Health and Medicine Undergraduate Certificate
The Community Health and Medicine Undergraduate Certificate provides training in the core research methodologies and theories of medical sociology, examining individual experience, institutional structures, laws and policies that affect health, and broader systems of inequality that lead to unequal rates of illness and access to care.
Aging and End of Life Cluster
The Aging and End of Life Cluster is designed for students to learn about the range of human experiences with aging and dying, and to understand how the medical considerations of aging and the end of life intersect with social, ethical, policy, and religious questions.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropology of Death | ||
| Families in Later Life | ||
| Design for Healthful Human Longevity | ||
| Live Long and Prosper: Public Health & Aging | ||
| Philosophy of Death and Dying | ||
| Lifespan Developmental Psychology for Health Majors | ||
| Aging, Brain and Behavior | ||
| Death and Concepts of Afterlife | ||
| Death & Dying: Social & Medical Perspectives | ||
| Aging, Society and Social Policy | ||
| Sociology of Adulthood and Aging |
Biology and Society Cluster
This area examines the ways biology interacts with everyday life. Students will learn about the reciprocal relationships between biology and society, including themes of health and disease, the environment, evolution, ethics, and behavioral choices about health.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Anthropology | ||
| Behavioral Genetics | ||
| Medicine, Health Care, and Justice: Bioethics | ||
| Biological Basis of Behavior | ||
| Health Psychology | ||
| Hormones and Behavior | ||
| Developmental Neuroscience | ||
| Neuropsychology | ||
| Population Change and Analysis |
Note: If students choose multiple upper division PSYC courses, they will need to add the introductory prerequisites, for a total for 21 credits for the cluster.
Environmental Health Cluster
This area focuses on the relationships between people and their environments. Students will learn about how both natural and built environments impact human health and disease, and how ecological balances are important to maintaining human health.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| History of Human Environmental Impacts | ||
| General Microbiology and General Microbiology Lab | ||
| Infectious Disease Ecology | ||
| Conservation Biology | ||
| Applied Microbial Ecology | ||
| Environmental Toxicology | ||
| Environment, Society and Sustainability | ||
| Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and Solutions | ||
| Geography of Food and Agriculture | ||
| Geography of Health | ||
| Earth Environments and Human Impacts | ||
| Environment and Society in the American Past | ||
| Disasters, Climate Change, and Health | ||
| Introduction to Environmental Health |
Note: If students choose multiple upper division BIOL courses, they will need to add the introductory prerequisites, for a total for 21 credits for the cluster.
Drugs and Addiction Cluster
This area considers the characteristics of addiction and how drugs work. Students will have the opportunity to study drugs and addiction from a variety of perspectives to better understand how individuals experience addiction and how society approaches policies and treatments regarding drugs and addiction.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Cannabis Culture | ||
| Psychedelic Anthropology | ||
| Economics of Sex and Drugs | ||
| Drugs, Brain and Behavior | ||
| Drugs, Alcohol & Society |
Family Health Issues Cluster
This area explores families as locations of health and well-being, on the one hand, and sources of health problems and crises, on the other. Students will learn about the relationships between family health and community health, as well as individual health and family health.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Family Communication | ||
| Love, Couples and Family | ||
| Mental Illness and Society | ||
| Public Health Perspectives On Family Violence | ||
| Family Psychology | ||
| Psychology of Women | ||
| Sociology of Human Sexuality | ||
| Families and Society | ||
| Social Meanings of Reproduction | ||
| Aging, Society and Social Policy | ||
| Sociology of Childhood and Adolescence | ||
| Sociology of Adulthood and Aging | ||
| Violence in Relationships |
Note: If students choose multiple PSYC courses, they will need to add the introductory prerequisites, for a total for 21 credits for the cluster.
Food and Nutrition Cluster
This area considers relationships between nutrition and overall health and well-being. Students will connect food to issues of sustainability and communication, understand obstacles to healthy eating, and learn about global issues of nutrition.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Nutritional Chemistry | ||
| You Are What You Eat: Food as Communication | ||
| Geography of Food and Agriculture | ||
| Sustainable Urban Agriculture Field Study I | ||
| Sustainable Urban Agriculture Field Study II | ||
| Food Justice in City & Schools |
Sexuality and Reproduction Cluster
This area examines sexuality and reproduction at both micro and macro levels, from the anatomy of the human body and the psychology of mind to the history of multiple societies and clusters. Students will learn how assumptions about gender and sex inform the science of sexuality and reproduction, and health impacts that derive from these relationships.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Human Reproductive Ecology | ||
| Human Reproductive Biology | ||
| History of Sexuality | ||
| Gender, Science, and Medicine: 1600 to the Present | ||
| Human Sexuality and Public Health | ||
| Global Topics In Sexual and Reproductive Health | ||
| Human Sexuality | ||
| Sociology of Human Sexuality | ||
| Sex and Gender | ||
| Population Change and Analysis | ||
| Social Meanings of Reproduction |
To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.
To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website.