POL 157 Epidemics and Inequalities
Inequality shows itself in a host of different ways; one of the most pronounced being health. This class uses twelve of the most alarming diseases of the 20th and 21st Centuries – from AIDS to Zika – to explore how inequality emerges in societies, how it is sustained, and how disease and the management of disease can reinforce or reduce those inequalities. Each week, students will take up a different disease of modern times and explore it from several angles: historical, sociostructural, epidemiological, economic, political, and medical. Each week students will analyze different aspects of the social determinants of health to understand the "peculiarly modern inequality" of health disparities, what this inequality means for the communities affected, and what advocates, policymakers, and health professionals can do to combat these diseases and the underlying factors rendering them so vulnerable to them. Along the way, students will also conduct original research on a recent health crisis, identifying what has worked and what hasn’t with respect to combatting health inequality in the United States.
Distribution
POL