健康与社会的博士学位课程将运用跨学科，比较性和批判性的视角来分析和理解健康，并将其视为一种社会和文化过程，建构和结果。正是这三种观点的结合，它们之间的相互作用和相互依存的方式以及对健康的社会结构和文化层面的关注，才使该计划在该地区具有特色。健康与社会领域的博士学位课程与该领域的许多博士课程不同，因为它允许学生发展和追求更广泛的研究兴趣，而这些兴趣可能不在公共卫生，人口统计学和服务管理的典型重点范围之内。
The PhD program in Health & Society will apply an interdisciplinary, comparative, and critical lens to analysing and understanding health as a social and cultural process, construct, and outcome. It is the combination of these three perspectives, the ways that they interact with and build on one another, and a focus on both the social structural and cultural dimensions of health that makes the program distinctive in its area. The PhD program in Health & Society differs from many doctoral programs in this area in that it allows students to develop and pursue broader research interests that may be outside the typical focus on public health, demography and service management.