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Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

Health Disparities Minor

Mission
Health disparities describe the disproportionate burden of disease, lack of access to health care, and poorer health outcomes found among members of socially disenfranchised populations. Health disparities exist at multiple levels of society (global, national, institutional, local, and personal) and among people of diverse geographic locations, linguistic groups, socioeconomic status, and sociocultural groups. The Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies minor in Health Disparities in Society (HDS) provides an interdisciplinary, intersectional framework to examine how multiple social identities (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status) intersect to reveal interlocking inequalities and preventable disparities in health.

Goals

In the minor, students:

  • solve problems related to health disparities using knowledge from biological, physical, social, and behavioral sciences;
  • describe the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health;
  • critically evaluate health care systems;
  • recognize bias and develop cultural competency;
  • promote health literacy;
  • develop effective interpersonal and interprofessional communication skills;
  • demonstrate professional responsibility through activism, advocacy, and policy;
  • apply the social justice missions of gender, sexualities, and women’s studies as well as medicine and the health professions to create health equity.
Access
The Health Disparities minor is open to all UF undergraduate students, regardless of college. Use this form to apply to add the minor. Keep in mind that you cannot add a minor before you have earned 45 credits at UF. In addition to formally applying to add the minor, please complete this survey so that we can plan for future Practicum course placements.

Courses
Coursework includes fifteen (15) hours of classes, including: WST 2322, Introduction to Health Disparities in Society and WST 4941c, Practicum in Health Disparities, and three electives (described below). This minor must include at least 9 hours at the 3000 level and above.

Students may petition to have a course not listed in one of the categories below count towards the minor if they believe it fits into the specific category’s knowledge base. Click here for the petition form and information on the petition process (PDF).

Note: If courses have enrollment caps or prerequisites set by the department that offers them, you may explain to the instructor that you are in the HDS minor and would like to enroll around those constraints, but being an HDS minor does not guarantee you admission to any class except the Core courses.

Courses for the HDS minor may be taken in any order, with one exception: WST 2322 must be taken before WST 4941C.

You may begin the minor with WST 2322 or any tier of electives, and proceed in any order. For example, you could follow the sequence:  elective, WST 2322, elective,  elective, WST 4941C. Contact the undergraduate coordinator with any questions.

All students must take WST 2322 and WST 4941C, as well as three electives from the categories below (one from Category A and two from Category B.

Category A: Theories of Social Inequality, Difference, and Power (choose one elective from this group)

      • AFA 3332 Black Feminist and Womanist Theory
      • AFA 4430 Black Lives Matter
      • AMH 3340 History of Disability in America
      • ANT 3451 Race and Racism
      • ENG 4844 Queer Theory
      • HIS 3454 Racial Theories in Europe and the U.S.
      • SYD 3700 Sociology of Race and Racism in the U.S.
      • SYO 4530 Social Inequality
      • WST 3015 Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Women’s Studies
      • WST 3415 Transnational Feminism
      • WST 3603 Sexualities Studies
      • WST 4641 Lesbian and Gay Studies

Category B: Health Systems and Social Justice Mission (choose two electives from this group)

      • ANT 3478 Global Health Culture
      • ANT 4462 Culture and Medicine
      • GEO 3430 Population Geography
      • GEO 3452 Introduction to Medical Geography
      • HIS 3495 Evolution of Infectious Diseases
      • PHC 3440 Global Public Health
      • PHC 3603 Critical Issues in Public Health
      • PHC 4101 Public Health Concepts
      • PHI 3459 Medicine and Philosophy
      • PHI 3633 Bioethics
      • SYO 4400 Medical Sociology
      • SYP 4730 Sociology of Aging and the Life Course
      • WST 3323 Gender, Bodies, & Health
      • WST 3703 History of American Medicine: Race, Class, Gender, and Science
      • WST 4326 Women and Therapy
      • WST 4704 Discrimination and Health
Practicum

Please note: WST4941C, Practicum in Health Disparities, regularly fills to capacity each semester. Students are eligible to enroll in the practicum during the last three semesters before graduation. To add your name to a practicum class roster, or to request a spot on the waitlist, please complete this survey

For more information about the Health Practicum Sites, click here.

Questions? Please contact undergraduate coordinator Dr. Alyssa Zucker.