The Health, Society and Policy minor allows students to gain a foundation in understanding health as a social phenomenon and provides an education to healthcare systems and public health policy development and implementation.

Course Requirements

The Department of Sociology requires six courses for the minor:

  • SOC 109: Health and Society
  • SOC 202: Research Methods (Or equivalent from other departments, e.g., SSS 340 + SSS 341, PSY 350)
  • SOC 325: Public Policy and Healthcare
  • Three additional Health, Society and Policy electives (please options below).

All minors must complete the above core required curriculum with a grade of "C-".

Note: Students in any department can count only two courses from their departments as counting towards both this minor and their major. Sociology students will therefore not be able to count all three required courses toward both degrees; they will then need four electives rather than three for the HSP minor (if any of these four electives are SOC courses, they must be in addition to the 6 electives required for the major).

Elective Courses

  • SOC 102: Global Social Problems and Social Justice
  • SOC 208: Sociology of Delinquency
  • SOC 316: World Poverty
  • SOC 336: Public Policy around the World
  • SOC 343: Religion and Mental Health in Global Perspective
  • SOC 351: Inequality: The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender
  • SOC 353: Health Inequalities
  • SOC 494: Independent Study in Sociology
  • SOC 495: Sociology Internship
  • SOC 499: Selected topics in Sociology (if semester theme is relevant to minor)

Interdisciplinary Electives

  • ANTH 341: Health, Society, and Culture 
  • BIO 103: Human Biology: What Makes Us Human
  • BIO 109: Medicine and Society
  • LAW 111: Social Justice and the Law: Intro to Catholic Social Thought
  • LAW TBD: Health Law
  • LSC 870: Health Sciences Information
  • LSC 871: Health Informatics
  • NURS 151: Intro to Health Systems and Professions
  • NURS 257: Nutrition and Health
  • NURS 375: Mental Health Nursing
  • PHIL 303: Biomedical Ethics*
  • PHIL 311: Contemporary Moral Issues*
  • PSY 383: Health Psychology **
  • PSY 384: Community and Cultural Psychology **
  • PSY 387: Community Interventions in Mental Health **
  • SPAN 277: Cultural Competence Awareness in Health Care
  • SSS 302: Social Welfare Policy 1
  • SSS 303: Social Welfare Policy 2
  • SSS 340: Social Work Research and Statistics 1
  • SSS 341: Social Work Research and Statistics 2
  • TRS 333: Biomedical and Healthcare Ethics ***

    *(Requires PHIL 201 and 202 or equivalents)
    **(Requires PSY 201 General Psychology)
    *** (Requires TRS 201, TRS 201H, or HSTR 101)