Urban Health and Social Policy

Catalog description

This course will provide students with a foundation for understanding how history, power, privilege and structural inequality interact to produce urban health disparities. An advanced sociology course, Disparities in Urban Health will introduce students to the impact of city life on health and health care in the U.S. and internationally. We will look at the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization on both physical and mental health and the root causes of racial and ethnic disparities in health. We will trace the interaction between specific aspects (e.g., housing, transportation, food outlets, crime) of the urban environment and their impact on health, discuss quality measurement, evaluate strategies for designing healthy communities, and develop recommendations for systems and policy change.