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The curricular elements of the program should occupy no more than 20% of Scholars time, the rest taken up with individual research activities and personal mentoring. Please click on each of the curricular elements below for details.
We offer each Fall term a one-semester course in Foundations of Population Health. The course is a common core experience for all entering Scholars in the Program, and is also be open by permission of the instructor to other postdocs and advanced graduate students. Various Program faculty take the lead in presenting each week. The overall size will not exceed 15 in any given year. The course covers the three foundational areas of the program (social determinants, biomedical determinants, and intervention/application translation). We have sketched out a 13-week typical syllabus organized in terms of these three areas as follows:
Social Determinants of Population Health
Week 1: The nature and theory of intervention and policy
Week 2: The development of theory and evidence on the psychosocial and behavioral determinants of health
Week 3: Biological pathways and mechanisms linking psychosocial factors to health and disease
Week 4: Socioeconomic disparities in the health of populations
Week 5: Introduction to constructing population health problems and policy prescriptions
Week 6: Sex, gender and the health of populations
Week 7: Racial/Ethnic disparities in the health of populations
Week 8: Population genetics, gene-environment interaction
Week 9: Spatial determinants of population health and the role of place
Week 10: Community-based interventions for population health
Week 11: Physical-chemical-biological environments and population health
Week 12: The health of individuals and population over the lifecourse
Week 13: Social and health policy and population
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The Research Seminar is held once a month over the academic year. The fundamental purpose of the research seminar is to provide an ongoing venue for interdisciplinary analysis and discussion of major issues in population health. It is open to the general university community. The public nature of the seminar provides a major channel for interchange between the Program and the broader university community, which contains a rich array of resources relevant to issues of population health. The seminar consists of presentations by invited speakers from outside and inside the University of Michigan. A broad range of disciplines and topics are covered in the seminar. Invited speakers are also available to meet with Scholars on a one-on-one basis as part of their visit. The choice of topics is determined by issues of timeliness, scholar interests, and the availability of internal and external presenters.
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Each year the Scholars propose as series of methodologic topics for additional training or discussion. The yearly series is coordinated by a methodologist member of the Steering Committee and may consist of seminars or short workshops as appropriate to the topic. A number of additional short courses and workshops are also offered through various units throughout the University and are accessible to the Scholars.
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Several times a year we hold a Salon open only to Scholars and the core faculty of the program (i.e., Steering Committee members and invited guests). The purpose is to read and discuss a major book or related set of papers/chapters on a currently important or controversial topic in Population Health. This activity develops social and intellectual cohesion among the Scholars and faculty of the Program, and promotes lively debate and discussion often leading to new research ideas and collaborations.
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The program Directors meet with the Scholars as a small group every other week to discuss their experience and progress in the Program and on their individual research, and more general issues of professional development and leadership in an interdisciplinary field. Meetings include discussion of Scholar research, discussion of seminal or recent articles, and general discussion of career development or other program-related issues. These meetings also provide a supportive collective forum for discussing individual issues and concerns related to interdisciplinary research and career trajectories.
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Scholars also participate in regular bi-monthly research seminars at the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health. In addition, each Scholar will also develop, in consultation with mentors and the Program Directors, individualized programs of additional courses, workshops, or other learning experiences necessary for achieving their research and professional development objectives. As necessary, the Program may offer or facilitate workshops or modules of this type (e.g., on methodological techniques, professional development/leadership issues).
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