Syllabus

Click for a printable syllabus (pdf).

The course schedule is printed on the last three pages of the syllabus.

This course is intended to introduce you to sociological perspectives on the study of health and illness in the context of the American health care system. We will consider health, illness, sickness and disease as social phenomena. In particular we will examine ways in which health (and ideas about health and its causation) is shaped by social context, culture, social structure, and social processes. We consider the social organization of health care including health care occupations, the organization of the health care delivery system and related policy issues.

Introductory Sociology (SOCI 1111) is strongly recommended as a prerequisite course.

Weiss, Gregory L. and Lynne E. Lonnquist. 2006. The Sociology of Health, Healing and Illness. 5th edition. (Upper Saddle Rive, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall) [WL]

Fadiman, Anne. 1997. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Selected readings are available on reserve in the McWherter Library Reserve Room and on-line.

Evaluation will be based on:

• attendance
• active participation in classroom discussions
• three written exercises
• a research term paper with annotated bibliography
• an optional written final

Poor attendance can lower your grade, while class participation can raise your grade by up to a full letter grade. No extra credit will be awarded in the course.