Classes

SBS 215 Society and Mental Health

Fall 1 2025
Link to the syllabus.
Poor mental health and mental disorders are often perceived as driven primarily by biological or genetic factors. However, how mental health is even defined and measured is shaped by societal factors, and exposure to societal risks and resources are critical contributors to variations in mental health and mental illness within the population. This course will provide an overview of multiple, major social factors that affect the risk of mental health and mental illness, and the ways in which modern societies can and should respond to these risks.

SB 207 Race, Ethnicity and Health

Fall 2 2025

Link to the syllabus
Health outcomes in the U.S. vary dramatically as a function of race and ethnicity. The purpose of this course is to address the possible pathways by which such disparities in health status arise at different stages in the life cycle. The course will highlight research that explores this issue from social, behavioral and psychological perspectives, as well as ideas about the meaning of race and ethnicity in American society. Students will be asked to develop their own research ideas that might help illuminate the nature of specific health disparities. Course Activities: Lectures, class presentations, discussion

AAAS 197 Poverty, Race, and Health

Fall 2025
This course critically examines the health status of the poor, and of African Americans and other socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups in the US. Attention will be focused on the patterned ways in which the health of these groups is embedded in the social, cultural, political, and economic contexts, and arrangements of US society. Topics covered include the meaning and measurement of race, the ways in which racism affects health, the historic uses of minorities in medical research, how acculturation and migration affects health, and an examination of the specific health problems that disproportionately affect nondominant racial groups.