Environmental Health, Inequality, and Policy

Catalog description

Examines scientific and social scientific approaches to environmental health, with focus on systemic drivers of exposure across the life course that can impact population-level health. The first part of the course introduces students to core concepts of environmental epidemiology (social and biological cause of disease), toxicology (science of poisons), and policy structures (i.e. risk assessment). We then consider case studies such as pesticides, consumer products, and air pollution. A common thread across the course considers how cumulative exposures can vary among different population groups, and the role of social movement struggles in efforts to achieve environmental health and justice.