David Torres

Genuinely one of the most impactful courses you can take at Middlebury. Global health broadens your awareness on so many fronts—economic, cultural, distributional, colonial, systemic, lingual, maternal, John Green... you get the point. Essentially this course covers world health systems and how they shape the way people on this planet interact with said health systems, and the way humans interact with one another under their respective health systems. I took this course with Professor Torres who led an open discussion/lecture each week. The readings/media had been chopped down form the previous iteration of the course. There's really only 2-3 mid length sources you need to read for each class, its imporant that you engage with them - lowkey you dont need to take notes at all, but you can if it helps you focus, there arent any tests ever. Just one Semester Issue Brief (which you should def not write in one week) and a 2 page health bio in the begining of the year.

Genuinely one of the most impactful courses you can take at Middlebury. Global health broadens your awareness on so many fronts—economic, cultural, distributional, colonial, systemic, lingual, maternal, John Green... you get the point. Essentially this course covers world health systems and how they shape the way people on this plane …Read more

Taking this global health class has been a total eye-opener—it’s way less about memorizing anatomy and more about understanding how politics, economics, and geography actually dictate who gets to live a healthy life. We spent a lot of time deconstructing the "global burden of disease," moving past just infectious outbreaks to see how things like wealth inequality and climate change are the real drivers behind modern health crises. It’s pretty humbling to realize that a person's zip code is often a stronger predictor of their lifespan than their genetic code. Between debating the ethics of vaccine equity and studying the social determinants of health, the course really pushes you to stop looking at patients in isolation and start looking at the broken systems that surround them.

Taking this global health class has been a total eye-opener—it’s way less about memorizing anatomy and more about understanding how politics, economics, and geography actually dictate who gets to live a healthy life. We spent a lot of time deconstructing the "global burden of disease," moving past just infectious outbreaks to see how …Read more

Prof Torres is a fantastic human being and is very passionate about global health. He is such an interesting person and makes you really think about the privilege and opportunities you are presented with and how you can work to make a difference in the world. I really enjoyed listening to him talk, although sometimes we talked about topics that were impossible to fix and try to fix them, it was a fantastic new way of thinking and a refreshing feeling of hope (especially in today's political climate). He brings in lots of guest speakers, including Drs, NYT reporters, and economists. Most of our grade was based on reflection journals where we discussed our thoughts on topics brought up in class, 2 written assignments, and your global health brief project. Prof Torres will help you every step of the way with all of this, and he wants you to walk away with a good grade and learn something.

Prof Torres is a fantastic human being and is very passionate about global health. He is such an interesting person and makes you really think about the privilege and opportunities you are presented with and how you can work to make a difference in the world. I really enjoyed listening to him talk, although sometimes we talked about …Read more