550.605.81
History of Public Health
Location
Internet
Term
3rd Term
Department
Extradepartmental
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
Asynchronous Online with Some Synchronous Online
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
Introduction to Online Learning.
The current COVID-19 pandemic, highlights the importance of understanding the history of public health. Quarantines, social distancing, masks, school and restaurant closures, and the rush to find effective vaccines and treatments are not new. These measures have a history. So too, do the social tensions and conflicts that these measures have produced. Understanding how people in the past have identified and responded to public health threats—be they infectious diseases, industrial pollution, occupational diseases, smoking, or various forms of cancer, provides a critical context for making sense of current and future public health crises.
Examines the historical experience of health and illness from a population perspective. Seeks to reveal how the organization of societies facilitates or mitigates the production and transmission of disease: how do populations and groups of individuals go about securing their health? Concentrates primarily on the modern world (i.e., 1750 onwards) and omits detailed examination of public health in antiquity and the middle ages, although these time periods are alluded to frequently. Adopts a thematic rather than chronological structure so that comparisons can be made across the centuries and between different parts of the globe.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Examine public health through its historical context
- Interpret public health interventions in the past in relation to their impact on inequality and prejudice
- Evaluate a range of current public health issues through comparisons with historical examples
- Apply historical methods to the analysis of primary sources
- Develop well-reasoned historical arguments, supported by judicious use of sources
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 25% Discussion
- 30% Assignments
- 45% Final Project