Call Number | 15855 |
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Day & Time Location |
W 1:00pm-3:50pm 532AB ROSENFIELD B |
Points | 3 |
Grading Mode | Standard |
Approvals Required | None |
Instructor | Robert E Fullilove |
Type | LECTURE |
Method of Instruction | In-Person |
Course Description | Over the 17 years that I have taught this course, I have tried to present students with articles that would provide an exposure to the growing body of research, commentaries, and critiques that discuss the relationships between race, ethnicity, and health. The premise upon which our work is based is rather simple: race is highly correlated with health status, but after many years of investigating this association, researchers are not entirely clear what this association means, nor are they clear how to use their research to improve the lot of people of color who are at risk for a wide variety of health conditions. Put more precisely, we don’t know what it is about someone’s race that causes the excess morbidity and mortality that is observed among members of so many ethnic minority groups. Typically, in the first class of the semester, students find this to be a puzzling way of defining the key issues in race and health. Given the dynamics of last year’s presidential elections where race played a huge role, it seems all the more bizarre to suggest that race is a concept of limited value to the science of public health. To students born in this country or who have lived here for an extended period of time, nothing could be more obvious than the fact that race matters. Racism is a fact of American life, and that its victims should suffer poorer health status than mainstream Americans seems almost self-evident. As the semester progresses and as the critique of current health research about race becomes more pronounced in the readings, students of all races, I hasten to add often feel compelled to say: “I don’t care what the articles say, race MATTERS!!!!!” Agreed. Race does matter, and it often matters in ways that are intensely personal, painful, and gut-wrenching. But the point of this course is not to deny the student’s personal experience of race, but rather to ask you to look beyond such experiences to develop a science of public health that specifies how and in what way race “acts” to cause the excess morbidity and mortality we observe in so many communities of color. |
Web Site | Vergil |
Department | Sociomedical Sciences |
Enrollment | 38 students (45 max) as of 10:06AM Thursday, November 21, 2024 |
Subject | Sociomedical Sciences |
Number | P8750 |
Section | 001 |
Division | School of Public Health |
Open To | GSAS, Public Health |
Section key | 20243SOSC8750P001 |