Program in Culture, Health, and Science

The Five College Program in Culture, Health, and Science (CHS) is a certificate program that allows undergraduate liberal arts students to explore human health, disease, and healing from interdisciplinary perspectives.

Graduate schools recognize that tomorrow's health experts will need interdisciplinary training to link their understandings of history, culture, and behavior with clinical, biological, and epidemiologic models of health and disease. Students design a plan of study that approaches "health" holistically from the perspective of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. 

Completing a CHS certificate builds on the liberal arts approach to equip students with tools to think critically about health issues. For example, students may learn to:

  • Recognize historical patterns of disease distribution, treatment, and health disparities
  • Appreciate the value of integrating literature, philosophy, and the arts with studies in STEM fields (and vice versa)
  • Develop technical skills (such as research design, media literacy, gene editing, foreign languages, econometrics, doula training, or statistical analysis) to apply to health issues
  • Navigate healthcare systems and be an advocate for themselves and others 
  • Apply contributions of multiple disciplines to the realm of public health, health promotion, cultural competence, disease eradication and global health

Students learn how behavior influences disease distribution, how biomedical categories change across time and culture, and how political and socioeconomic factors affect disease and treatment. CHS students learn to interpret and communicate their results to diverse audiences.

CHS is led by a Steering Committee of faculty members from all five colleges and a range of disciplines. CHS students work with their campus advisors to articulate objectives, select courses, and conduct independent projects or internships. Faculty and students alike are enriched by the cross-campus connections and interdisciplinary collaborations that the Culture, Health, and Science program fosters—locally and globally. Get on board!

Interested in learning more about CHS? Join our email list, follow us on Facebook, and fill out a Declaration of Interest Form.

On This Page

2020 is a year that fully illuminates the importance of the work that the Five College Program in Culture, Health, and Science (CHS) promotes. The lived experience and far-reaching consequences of structural anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and racial inequities are public health issues. This is a longstanding crisis, which is now being exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and an ongoing climate emergency. Widespread protests demanding an end to systemic racism bring renewed urgency to our interdisciplinary approaches and inspire us to learn from vital traditions and develop new frames of reference. CHS supports students to listen to, learn from, and work with a wide range of communities and individuals with varied vantage points and backgrounds to advance common causes. In this way, we view ending racism and averting climate disaster as intertwined core concerns that demand decisive, sustained, and collective action.

Faculty

Culture, Health, and Science Campus Advisors are faculty members in a variety of disciplines at each of the five campuses who work directly with students pursuing the CHS certificate to guide students through the CHS program, answer questions and help students plan for successfully completing all certificate requirements.

If you are in your final year at one of the campuses and plan on completing the CHS certificate before graduation, or are just starting and want to learn more about the program, CHS advisors can help you find your way.

Read about the advisors at your institution through the links provided, and contact the advisor of your choice to arrange an advising session.

  • Felicity Aulino, Anthropology (teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College)
  • Rebeccah Lijek, Biological Sciences

  • Felicity Aulino, Anthropology (teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College)
  • Betsy KrauseAnthropology
  • Thomas LeathermanAnthropology (On sabbatical Fall 2022 - Spring 2023)
  • Amanda Seaman, Asian Languages and Literatures
  • Susan ShawPublic Health (On sabbatical Fall 2022 - Spring 2023)

The CHS Program is guided by a steering committee comprised of faculty members from each of the five campuses and staff members of the Five College consortium.

Amanda Seaman, Asian Languages and Literatures, UMass Amherst

Richard Aronson, Health Professions Advisor
Alexandra Purdy, Biology
Chris Dole, Anthropology (On sabbatical Fall 2022 - Spring 2023)

Elizabeth Conlisk, Natural Sciences
Cynthia Gill, Natural Sciences
Alan Goodman, Natural Sciences

Rebeccah Lijek, Biological Sciences

Benita Jackson, Psychology
Susan Levin, Philosophy
Suzanne Zhang-Gottschang, Anthropology (On sabbatical Spring 2023)

Felicity Aulino, Anthropology (teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College)
Dan Gerber, Public Health
Aline Gubrium, Public Health
Betsy Krause, Anthropology
Tom Leatherman, Anthropology (On sabbatical Fall 2022 - Spring 2023)
Amanda Seaman, Asian Languages and Literatures

Certificate

The Five College Certificate in Culture, Health, and Science complements any major, allowing students to deepen their knowledge of human health, disease, and healing through interdisciplinary inquiry. Under the guidance of faculty program advisors on each campus, students choose a sequence of seven courses available across the five campuses and identify (in consultation with their advisor) an appropriate project or internship that will count toward the certificate. (Four semesters of a second language is also recommended, but not required.) Together with the visiting lectures and seminars sponsored by the Program, CHS provides a structure that is adaptable for students interested in pursuing health-related careers, as well as those curious to learn how different disciplines analyze common human experience.

Interested in pursuing the Culture, Health, and Science Certificate?

First, reach out to a campus advisor and fill out the Declaration of Interest Form. Then, take a look at the Student Timeline to stay on schedule with the certificate program requirements. We also recommend that you download the CHS Certificate Completion Form (below) to help you and your advisor keep track of what courses you need and what requirements you have fulfilled.

Certificate Requirements

The seven required courses are to be distributed across the following five categories of inquiry:

  1. Biocultural Approaches
    Interdisciplinary and/or comparative approaches that explore the interdependent influences on human health and disease
  2. Mechanisms of Disease Transmission
    Mechanisms of disease growth and transmission within individuals and populations
  3. Population Health and Disease
    Exploring the relationships among social, behavioral, economic and other aggregate population forces on human health and disease
  4. Engaged and Humanistic Approaches
    Ethical, humanistic, artistic, and engaged approaches to human health and disease, including explorations of healthcare practice, policy, and activism.
  5. Research Design and Analysis
    Concepts of evidence, data collection, research ethics, measurement and modes of analysis

Further Details:

  • No course can be used to satisfy more than one category.  
  • No more than three courses can “double count” toward a student’s major.
  • Four semesters—or the equivalent—of a second language is recommended but not required. Such language training may be required for students seeking internships and summer research positions.

Independent Research Project

The Certificate requires the completion of an independent project such as an internship, thesis, Division III project, course project, independent study or other activity. You work with your campus CHS advisor to develop a project that satisfies both the Certificate requirements and your own interests. Not sure if you have an independent project that qualifies? Meet with your CHS Campus Advisor to find out.

Completion

When you complete the requirements for the CHS Certificate, return the completed Certificate Completion Form to your CHS campus advisor along with a copy of your transcript.

If you have any questions about the requirements or if you would like to pursue the certificate, contact your CHS Campus Advisor.

Courses

Fall 2022 CHS Courses: Category 5

Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
SWAG 209 01 Feminism in Sci and Med Katrina Karkazis Amherst College TTH 10:00 AM-11:20 AM
PSY 345 01 Res Sem:Feminist Perspectvs Benita Sibia Jackson Smith College TU TH 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
ANTHRO 415 01 Women's Health/Life Course Achsah Dorsey UMass Amherst TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM

Fall 2022 CHS Courses: Category 4

Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
ANTHRO 497DK 01 ST-CARE: Doing, Knowing, Being Felicity Aulino,Lynnette Arnold UMass Amherst TU 10:00AM 12:45PM

Fall 2022 CHS Courses: Category 3

Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
BIOL 321PR 01 Pregnancy and the Placenta Sarah Bacon Mount Holyoke College MW 11:30AM-12:45PM
GNDST 333PC 01 Pregnancy and the Placenta Sarah Bacon Mount Holyoke College MW 11:30AM-12:45PM
PSY 240 01 Colq: Health Promotion Benita Sibia Jackson Smith College TU TH 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
ANTHRO 273 01 People&Pathogens: Disease Eco Achsah Dorsey UMass Amherst TU TH 4:00PM 5:15PM

Fall 2022 CHS Courses: Category 2

Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
BIOL 321PR 01 Pregnancy and the Placenta Sarah Bacon Mount Holyoke College MW 11:30AM-12:45PM
GNDST 333PC 01 Pregnancy and the Placenta Sarah Bacon Mount Holyoke College MW 11:30AM-12:45PM
PSY 240 01 Colq: Health Promotion Benita Sibia Jackson Smith College TU TH 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
PSY 345 01 Res Sem:Feminist Perspectvs Benita Sibia Jackson Smith College TU TH 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
ANTHRO 273 01 People&Pathogens: Disease Eco Achsah Dorsey UMass Amherst TU TH 4:00PM 5:15PM

Fall 2022 CHS Courses: Category 1

Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
SWAG 209 01 Feminism in Sci and Med Katrina Karkazis Amherst College TTH 10:00 AM-11:20 AM
NS 0119 1 The Biology of Inequality Alan Goodman Hampshire College 10:30AM-11:50AM TU;10:30AM-11:50AM TH
ANTHRO 415 01 Women's Health/Life Course Achsah Dorsey UMass Amherst TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
ANTHRO 497DK 01 ST-CARE: Doing, Knowing, Being Felicity Aulino,Lynnette Arnold UMass Amherst TU 10:00AM 12:45PM

For a searchable spreadsheet of CHS Ever-Approved Courses, see HERE.

You can download this document and search for regularly offered courses that have been approved to fullfil CHS certificate requirements. Search by campus, subject or number, as well as by each of the CHS requirement categories.

If you would like to fulfill a CHS requirement with a course that is not included on the ever-approved CHS course list, please contact your campus certificate advisor to request special permission and discuss your course options. You and your advisor can petition to add a course to the Ever Approved Course list with the Course Petition Form (below).

For a course to fulfill a CHS requirement, at least 30% of the content should be devoted to topics in human health. If you would like to suggest a course for the ever-approved course list, please contact us.

Frequently Asked Questions

The CHS certificate is a way to express a unifying thread in your undergraduate coursework. It enables students to demonstrate a multidisciplinary breadth that goes beyond a specific major. Pre-health students and those interested in health careers of all kinds use the certificate to express their ability to bridge a variety of different fields and develop a profile that is relevant to our multifaceted world.

Often, the answer is "yes." If your studies have been in the culture/health/science genres, some of the classes on your transcript may already fulfill CHS requirements. It’s ideal to go into the CHS certificate with intention, but the requirements are not impossible and it’s likely any remaining courses can be completed in just 2–3 semesters.

We strongly suggest you declare your interest as early as you can and get an advisor for the program. Fill out the Declaration of Interest Form as soon as possible and download the Certificate Completion Form to keep track as you complete the requirements. Again, please contact your campus faculty advisor early in your planning to get his/her advice.

No more than three of the courses used to satisfy requirements in your major may also count toward CHS requirements. The remaining four of the seven courses must be from departments outside of your major.

We work with the offices of the registrars at each campus to make sure the certificate appears on transcripts of graduating CHS students as long as there is space (some schools only will include 2–3 credentials on the transcript; check your campus rules). We also send out physical certificates each July to that year's graduates.

CHS professors often hold spots in their classes for qualified Five College students. Check to make sure you have fulfilled the prerequisites for the class. It's a good idea to contact the professor early to let her/him know that you hope to use the course to satisfy a CHS requirement. Use the cross-registration procedures set up by your registrar to make sure that you are formally enrolled in the course.

Not necessarily. It is recommended, but not required, for students to study beyond their home campuses. CHS is an inter-campus, interdisciplinary program; this is one of our greatest strengths. For that reason, we encourage students to take advantage of the wide variety of health-related courses available on the five campuses in the consortium.

The independent project requirement allows students to design and carry out a health-related project suited to their own particular interests. The project can take the form of a summer or January-term internship, a substantial research paper for a course, laboratory research, a Hampshire Division III project, an independent study or an honors thesis. It's a good idea to consult with your campus faculty advisor about your plans. A report explaining how your particular project contributed to your knowledge of human health may be required.

Foreign language study is not explicitly required in order to earn the certificate.  However, taking four semesters of a foreign language (or the equivalent) is recommended for the CHS certificate. Languages other than English are beneficial for those applying for international internships, graduate programs, and many jobs.

Review your certificate completion form and an unofficial copy of your transcript with your CHS advisor by the date listed on the checklist form. If your advisor agrees you have completed the requirements, the advisor will sign the form and send it to the CHS Steering Committee.  At the end of each semester, the CHS Steering Committee reviews all completed forms and makes a final determination as to whether the certificate will be awarded. The certificate award is noted on the student's transcript by the student's home campus registrar. A hard copy of the certificate is mailed to the address on the checklist form, normally in July.

There is no grade requirement, but you must pass a course to count it toward the certificate. 

Online courses can be counted toward the certificate if the policy of your home institution allows you to count online courses toward your degree, and with the approval of your CHS campus advisor.

No.

If you want to have a course from another college or university count toward the Certificate, consult with your campus faculty advisor. Your advisor will want to see a copy of the course description, syllabus and any work you completed for the course. The advisor may use his/her discretion, in consultation with the CHS Steering Committee, to decide whether the course will qualify for your CHS Certificate requirements.

Visit the the CHS Email List page for more information and to sign up.

Send announcements of health-related events and opportunities to chs-director-l@amherst.edu. We will be happy to post notices of relevant health-related events!

Please contact us at chs-director-l@amherst.edu.

Samya Rose Stumo

Remembering Samya Rose Stumo

Samya Stumo died tragically on the Ethiopian airlines flight that crashed near Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019. Her loss is a tragedy to her family and all who knew her. 

Reading List

Click here to view a reading list compiled by CHS faculty.

Contact Us

Questions? Want more information?

Contact: chs-director-l@amherst.edu

Program Director:

Amanda Seaman, Professor of Japanese, UMass Amherst

Program Assistant:

Sarah Tonks

Five College Staff Liaison:

April Shandor, Academic Programs Coordinator

Connect:

For regular updates, join the CHS email list!

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