Political Science 297XH - ST-Science/Health Inequalities

This course offers an unique approach to the study and understanding of health inequalities in the United States - the fact that the burden of disease and death affects populations differently in the United States. A social gradient runs through health indicators such that the poor do worse than the middle class, who do worse than their more affluent counterparts. This is explained by individual level factors - diet, physical activity, environmental exposure - as well as more "macro" or structural level factors (like access to recreational space, nutritional foods, and clean environments). Both individual and structural risk factors are outcomes of the political and policy process. With a team-based learning design, six faculty from various disciplines will introduce students to the approach and methodology that each field brings to the study of health inequalities, as well as the political impediments to interventions that could address them.

Open to Commonwealth College students only.