The Historical Determinants of Public Health

Catalog description

An ignorance of public health history is partly to blame for our imperfect response to COVID-19 in the United States. Throughout the pandemic, the reductive framing of public health’s greatest challenges —from addressing vaccine hesitancy, the rampant spread of pseudoscience and misinformation, or pervasive stigma and discrimination in communities of color—allowed our field to overlook the deep and undeniable historical roots of contemporary public health practice. This course will highlight the central role that historical determinants of public health continue to play in shaping health policy and response. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a prism, students will critically examine the successes and setbacks of earlier eras in public health history, providing them with the historical framing necessary to better understand and advocate for impactful public health interventions in the present and future.