Instructor: Samuel K. Roberts, Jr.
There is a significant correlation between inequality and health in the United States. For example, people of color and those from underserved populations have higher mortality rates and a greater burden of chronic and acute disease than their white counterparts.
Students will gain familiarity with a range of historical problems where health and health politics engage with ethnic(racial), sexual, class, and other subject formations; political economy; and technological networks and since the late 19th century. Topics to be examined will include, but will not be limited to, women of color & health movements; (im)migration; HIV/AIDS politics, policy, and community response; illicit drug policy; public health and mass incarceration; “benign neglect,” urban renewal, and gentrification; medical abuses and the legacy of Tuskegee; tuberculosis control; and environmental justice. No course prerequisites necessary, but there is an application process (see https://goo.gl/forms/mm5DsSHEjHItR30m2.) Deadline to submit the application will be January 15. However, we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis. It will be better for you to submit sooner rather than later.
Through a program and with staff provided by the Research Cluster in Science and Subjectivity (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/rcss/), students will be placed in volunteer positions with various community organizations. The RCSS describes this work in this fashion:
‘In addition to the seminar, there will also be a significant service component. Students will be expected to volunteer at a community organization for a minimum of 3 hours a week. This volunteer work will open an avenue for students to go beyond the walls of their classrooms while learning from and positively impacting their community. This work will inform class discussions and allow students to develop a practical understanding of topics discussed’.
