INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE & PRACTICE

The different studios in the Mailman Core teach a set of foundational perspectives, knowledge, and skills. But the practice of public health requires applying this education in a context characterized by uncertainty, risk, competing interests, conflicting values, and systems of oppression that perpetuate racism and drive inequities across multiple dimensions of society

The Integration of Science and Practice (ISP) uses case studies of actual events to help students analyze the complicated nature of public health practice. The course immerses students in the complex arena of public health decision-making and debate, placing them in the role of stakeholders and policymakers who must marshal both their core knowledge and disciplinary perspectives to explore different options and create and justify interdisciplinary responses to public health challenges. The cases also provide an opportunity to identify crosscutting themes and questions (e.g. knowledge gaps; used of evidence; trade-offs in public health decision making, inequities and inequalities; discrimination; public health ethics; politics; interest group agendas; funding and available resources; organization; public perception, etc.).

Fundamental to all the cases, ISP provides a structured space to explore systems of oppression, our relationship to these systems, and their impact on public health.

In the Fall semester these cases are based upon classic public health dilemmas, and links are made to their relevance to current public health issues. The cases serve as an archive of sorts, a library of examples to draw on as points of comparison when they encounter similar problems and issues in other classes or during their careers.