Global Health This course provides an introductory survey of the basic issues and initiatives in contemporary global public health, demonstrating the inextricability of public health problems from the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental issues that exist in an era of globalization.  Examining these connections will enable us to critically evaluate the goals and strategies of public health interventions, and discuss factors impacting their success or failure.  To do this, we must also examine the lens through which the West views public health problems as they relate to our cultural beliefs, biomedical views of health, sense of justice, and strategic interests.  (Not open to students who have taken INTD 0257 or SOAN 0267)

Pandemic Preparedness and Response This course will examine the history of pandemics, beginning with the 1918 Influenza. The class will look at how individual countries were prepared for Covid19 (or not), and how they responded, how the global system for pandemic preparedness under the guidance of the WHO performed, and whether the lessons we drew from the Covid19 Pandemic experience will leave us better prepared for the next pandemic. In the case of the US, we will look at differential health outcomes for marginalized and other communities. Additional topics in this course will include healthcare ethics in the face of rationing; ethics and the global allocation of vaccines and therapeutics; global treaties governing pharmaceutical patents; and how politics plays a role in the dissemination of information vital for country response to outbreaks of concern, epidemics, and pandemics.

Social Entrepreneurship and Global Health Social and structural determinants of health create barriers to availability, accessibility and uptake of health services in many countries. We will take a case study approach to examining how social entrepreneurs develop and scale up responses to help clients overcome these barriers. We will explore factors including: human rights, poverty, disenfranchisement of women, government health care systems and infrastructure, human resources for health, task shifting, the politics of sexual/reproductive health, and infectious diseases. We will draw on articles and online materials. This course mixes theory and case study, and will count as an elective towards the Global Health minor.

Global Health This course provides an introductory survey of the basic issues and initiatives in contemporary global public health, demonstrating the inextricability of public health problems from the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental issues that exist in an era of globalization.  Examining these connections will enable us to critically evaluate the goals and strategies of public health interventions, and discuss factors impacting their success or failure.  To do this, we must also examine the lens through which the West views public health problems as they relate to our cultural beliefs, biomedical views of health, sense of justice, and strategic interests.

David Torres

Reviews and ratings for David Torres at Middlebury College.David Torres teaches Global Health, Pandemic Preparedness, Soc Entrep and Global Health and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is David Torres good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

I really enjoyed taking this course with Professor Torres! He is clearly passionate about the field of Global Health, and really made the class enjoyable. This course required lots of readings for discussions, and we had several group projects and presentations. Overall, I definitely enjoyed this class and it helped push me towards declaring a minor in Global Health!

This course was pretty relaxed and Professor Torres is clearly passionate and very knowledgable on the subject. I learned a lot about how non-profits work and what is needed for their mission to be successful. Prof Torres does not use lecture slides, the class is discussion based. His assignments required time but were not overly difficult. The exam was take-home. 

I loathed this class so much. He is literally virtue signaling personified. Readings were interesting but we pretty much never discussed them in class. I have loved my other classes in the department but would drop the minor to avoid this class.