Social Theory and Public Health

Catalog description

This course will examine a variety of social science theories and concepts approaching health, illness, public health and health care and their evolution through history. Drawing mainly from diverse perspectives in the sociology and anthropology of health, the course will discuss public health issues with concepts, models and methods at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, national and global levels of interaction. Through lectures and discussion-driven, students will emphasize the analysis of theoretical approaches of the social sciences and their contribution to our understanding of health and sociological approaches to health systems from local to global levels. At the end of the course, students will be expected to evaluate the underpinnings of diverse sociological traditions of inquiry in explaining the distribution of health and illness in populations and its implications for action in public health practice.