HEALTH AND SOCIETIES (AS) {HSOC}
L/R 001. (STSC001) Emergence of Modern Science. (C) May be counted toward the Hum/SocSci or NatSci/Math Sectors. Class of 2010. Adams. Examines the emergence and development
of the scientific world view, from the Renaissance
to the end of the 20th century. Explores the history
of scientific ideas, the social contexts which gave
rise to them, and their social and human implications.
Sample topics include: Copernican revolution; Galileo,
science and the Church; Newton and the mechanical
worldview; Enlightenment and Romantic science; Lavoisier,
industrialization and the rise of modern chemistry;
Darwin; Darwinism and evolution; atomic physics,
the bomb and its aftermath; the emergence of modern
genetics; the DNA revolution; computers on the information
age; and science and the human future.
L/R 002. (HIST036, STSC002) Medicine in History. (C) History & Tradition Sector. All classes. Barnes. This course surveys the
history of medical knowledge and practice from ancient
times to the present. No prior background in the
history of science or medicine is required. The course
has two principal goals (1) to give students a practical
introduction to the fundamental questions and methods
of the history of medicine and (2)to foster a nuanced,
critical understanding of medicine's complex role
in contemporary society. The course takes a broadly
chronological approach, blending the perspectives
of tha patient, the physician and society as a whole--recognizing
that medicine has always aspired to "treat" healthy
people as well as the sick and infirm. Rather than
history "from the top down" or "from
the bottom up," this course sets its sights
on history from the inside out. This means, first,
that medical knowledge and practice is understood
through the personal experiences of patients and
caregivers. It also means that lectures and discussions
will take the long-dicredited knowledge and treatments
of the past seriously, on their own terms, rather
than judging them by today's standards. Required
readings consist largely of primary sources, from
elite medical texts to patient diaries. Short research
assignments will encourage students to adopt the
perspectives of a range of actors in various historical
eras.
003. (STSC003) Technology and Society. (A) Society Sector. All classes. Cowan/Ensmenger. "We shape our technolgies;
thereafter they shape us." This course surveys
the ways in which technology has shaped our societies
and our relations with the natural world. We will
examine the origins and impact of technical developments
throughout human history and across the globe--from
stone tools, agriculture and cave painting to ancient
cities, metallurgy and aqueducts; from windmills,
cathedrals, steam engines and electricity to atom
bombs, the internet and genetic engineering. We will
pay attention to the aesthetic, religious and mythical
dimensions of technological change and consider the circumstances in which innovations emerge and their effects
on social order, on the environment and on the ways
humans understand themselves
L/R 010. Health and Societies. (B) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. Barnes.
Also fulfills General Requirement in Science Studies for Class of 2009 and prior.
This course is an introduction to the vocabulary,
skills, and concepts basic to sociocultural studies
of health and disease. While recognizing the importance
of the biomedical model, particularly to Western
civilization, the course asks students to explore
other approaches and healing traditions. It does
so by exploring how policy analysts, medical care
providers, and scholars from a variety of disciplines
including anthropology, history and sociology have
crafted responses to such real world problems as
malnutrition, epidemic disease, and the inequitable
distribution of health resources.
SM 018. Medicine in Africa. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Feierman. The
story of health, healing and disease on the African
continent in its historical context. What is the
relationship between the growth of cities and the
spread of AIDS, or between globalization and malnutrition?
Is biomedicine practiced on the African continent
the same way it is in the U.S., or are there important
differences? What are the major African healing traditions,
and how do they work? What are the forces, in our
world today, that lead to malnutrition and disease
in Africa, or to health and well-being?
SM 025. (HIST025, RELS116, STSC028) Western Science, Magic and Religion 1600 to
the present. (C)History & Tradition Sector. All classes. Kuklick. Throughout human history, the relationships of science and religion, as well
as of science and magic, have been complex and often surprising. This course will cover topics ranging from the
links between magic and science in the seventeenth century to contemporary anti-science movements.
SM 039. The Healer's Tale: Negotiating Trust in Modern America. (C) Tighe. Dramatic, deadly, and terrifying in their brutal immediacy, outbreaks
of epidemic disease have devastated and transformed
human societies since the beginnings of recorded
history. From the Black Death to cholera to AIDS,
epidemics have wrought profound demographic, social,
political and cultural change all over the world.
Such is the power of their mystery and horror that
while thousands die everyday in the United States
from mundane illnesses such as heart disese or lung
cancer, panic grips the land at the thought of a
handful of deaths from seemingly exotic affictions
such as West Nile encephalitis and "weaponized" anthrax.
Through a detailed analysis of specific historical
outbreaks, this seminar will investigate the causes
and effects of epidemic disease, and will examine
the ways in which different societies in different
eras have responded in times of crisis.
SM 048. Epidemics in History. (C) Barnes. Dramatic, deadly, and terrifying in their brutal immediacy, outbreaks
of epidemic disease have devastated and transformed
human societies since the beginnings of recorded
history. From the Black Death to cholera to AIDS,
epidemics have wrought profound demographic, social,
political and cultural change all over the world.
Such is the power of their mystery and horror that
while thousands die everyday in the United States
from mundane illnesses such as heart disese or lung
cancer, panic grips the land at the thought of a
handful of deaths from seemingly exotic affictions
such as West Nile encephalitis and "weaponized" anthrax.
Through a detailed analysis of specific historical
outbreaks, this seminar will investigate the causes
and effects of epidemic disease, and will examine
the ways in which different societies in different
eras have responded in times of crisis.
SM 050. Mad, Bad and Sad: The Construction, Prevention and Treatment of Mental
Illness. (C)Mandell. This freshmen seminar is designed to introduce students to research
and debatessurrounding the concept of mental disorder
and to help them to think critically about these
disorders' biological and social construction. In
addition to learning about the presentation and treatment
of mental illness, they weill also be introduced
to concepts in epidemiology, psychology, psychiatry
and health services research, and learn about the
history of the science surrounding psychiatry and
how different beliefs at different times have influended
policy, systems, services and treatment.
SM 051. (STSC051) Ethics, Technology & the Life Sciences. (M) Moreno. In this seminar we will explore the roles and functions of the bioethicist,
a new profession that has only emergedin the past
quarter century or so, and the new field of bioethics.
Bioethicists work in hospitals on clinical ethics,
in medical schools and research facilities on exxperimentation
ethics, in public policy and, more recently, in the
political arena. We will also explore bioethical
theories and specific issues and cases like stem
cell research and the Schiavo controversy, and discuss
thehistory of bioethics. And we will pay close attention
to bioethical issues in the media during the semester.
SM 058. What is Cancer? Disease, Society, History. (M) Aronowitz. What is cancer? Wht causes cancer? What do its high prevalence and
devastating effects tell us about ourselves and our
society? What can we do about it? Laboratory researchers,
epidemiologists, public health officials, medical
specialists, environmental activists, and cancer
patients have offered different and incomplete answers
to such questions. Students will learn about these
difference perspectives by analyzing historical documents
and scholarship from different disciplines and professions,
meeting with health professionals and others, and
doing writing and research assignments.
095. (MUSC095) Music and Medicine. Breene. In the sixth century, Boethius introduced the concept of musica humana,
in which he described how the harmony of body and
soul was reflected in musical sound, and how this
sense of harmony contributed to humanity's place
in the universe at large. In the twenty-first century,
neuroscientists investigate the ways in which music
offers insight into the pathways of the brain, and
can, in fact, help shape these pathways, thus offering
a neural basis for understanding social bonding,
cognition, and emotion. The rich, ever-changing relationship
between music and medicine is the focus of this course.
We will study this relationship as it was articulated
at various cultural moments from ancient Greece to
the present, with attention devoted to intersections
between music and medicine in the West but with consideration
also given to other cultural traditions (i.e., shamanism).
Topics will include: musics effects on the body and
soul, as described by ancient writers such as Plato,
Aristotle, and Galen; early modern understandings
of music and the humoral body; the history of tarantism,
Mesmerism, and other healing methods involving music;
the genealogy of music and melancholy; empiricism and emerging conceptions of the nervous, sensing body
during the psychology of hearing; and music's signficance
for research in neorophysiology & cognitive science.
100. (SOCI100) Introduction to Sociological Research. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff. This course surveys the different sociological methods, including: survey, content
analysis, historical-comparative, participant observation and ethnographic perspectives. It reviews research design,
experimental design, evaluation methods, research ethics and the uses of research. Students explore these methods
and perspectives in class assignments and exercices. A brief introduction to SPSS (statistical package
for the social sciences) is also provided.
L/R 101. (PHIL072, PPE 072) Biomedical Ethics. (M) Lindee. A survey of moral problems in medicine and biomedical research. Problems discussed
include: genetic manipulation, informed consent, infanticide, abortion, euthanasia, and the allocation of medical
resources. Moral theory is presented with the aim of enabling students to think critically and analytically about
moral issues. The need for setting biomedical issues in broader humanistic perspective is stressed.
SM 109. (SAST286, GSOC108) Topics in Health in South Asia. (L) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Sheehan. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical evidence,
the course uses a socio-medical approach for understanding
the health status and health behaviors of women in
South Asia. Gender is a crucial explanatory variable
of women's survival experience; burden of disease;
nutritional status; and access to and utilization
of health services. Girls and women face health and
disease problems over their life course related to
nutrition needs, reproductive health, work conditions,
as well as to infectionous disease. This course places
the experience of women's health in South Asia in
contemporary, historic, and comparative frameworks.
Lectures, discussion, and assignments provide entry
to greater understanding of both the specialized
nature of South Asian women's health problems, as
well as those common to women worldwide.
111. (SOCI111) Health of Populations. (C) Preston. This course develops some of the major measures used to assess the
health of populations and uses those measures to
consider the major factors that determine levels
of health in large aggregates. These factors include
disease environment, medical technology, public health initiatives, and personal behaviors.
The approach is comparative and historical and includes
attention to differences in health levels among major
social groups.
118. (SOCI118) Sociology of Bioethics. (A) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Wolpe. The
Sociology of Bioethics explores the sociological
approach to bioethics. The Sociology of Bioethics
is not a course in bioethics itself; rather than
discussing the merits of a position (Is assisted
suicide ethical?), we will ask how the debate has
been framed, who is promoting which arguments, why
the debate has arisen now, and how the issue is reflected
in policy. In order to do so we will make use of
social science research, along with philosophical
treatises, legislation, and the popular media. The
course is also not designed as a comprehensive treatment
of the field; it will focus instead on choice topics
that we will explore in depth. Our goal is to understand
the nature of the bioethics profession and its modes of argumentation, and to explore the cultural, social,
political, and professional underpinnings of bioethical
debates.
SM 135. (PSCI135) The Politics of Food. (M) Summers. This academically based community service seminar will explore the many different
politics that shape food production and consuption and problems like food insecurity and obesity here in West Philadelphia
and around the world. Students will be encouraged to think broadly about how people engage in politics --articulate
goals, form alliances, struggle for power, respond to and engage in leadership- in many different areas: cities,
farms, factories, kitchens, markets, schools, churches, research institutions, social movements, elections, legislatures.
A focus on case studies of leaders who have made a difference in the politics of food will include guest speakers, who work
on food related issues.
L/R 140. History of Bioethics. (C) Linker. This course is an introduction to the historical development of medical ethics
and to the birth of bioethics in the twentieth-century United States. We will examine how and why medical ethical
issues arose in American society at this time. Themes will include human experimentation, organ donation, the rise
of medical technology and euthanasia. Finally, this course will examine the contention that the current discipline
of bioethics is a purely American phenomenon that has been exported to Great Britain, Canada and Continental Europe.
L/R 145. (HIST146, STSC145) Comparative Medicine. (C) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Feierman. This course focuses on health and healing in the colonial and post-colonial
world. We give special attention to local healing under condition of domination, to definitions of the body and the person
in biomedicine and in non-European healing traditions, and to th epolitical and cultural place of medicine in regions
which have experienced colonial rule.
L/R 150. (SOCI152) American Health Policy. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Linker. This lecture course will introduce students to a broad range of topics that
fall under the heading of American health policy. Its main emphasis will be on the history of health care in America from
the U.S. Civil War to the present day. Some of the themes addressed include: American public health movements and hospitals,
private health insurance (such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield),industrial health and workmen's compensation,
the welfare state (in Europe and the U.S.), women's health, especially maternal and infant care programs, Medicare/Medicaid,
the Clinton Health Plan, injured soldiers and the Veterans Administration.
152. (STSC162) Technology and Medicine in Modern America. (L) Staff. Medicine as it exists in contemporary America is profoundly technological;
we regard it as perfectly normal to be examined with
instruments, to expose our bodies to many different
machines; and to have knowledge produced by those
machines mechanically/electronically processed, interpreted
and stored. We are billed technolgoically, prompted
to attend appointments technologically, and often
buy technologies to protect, diagnose, or improve
our health: consider, for example, HEPA-filtering
vacum cleaners; air-purifiers; fat-reducing grills;
bathroom scales; blood pressure cuffs; pregancy testing
kits; blood-sugar monitoring tests; and thermometers.
Yet even at the beginning to the twentieth century,
medical technolgies were scarce and infrequently
used by physicians and medical consumers alike.
Over the course of this semester, we will examine how technology came to medicine's
center-stage, and what impact this change has had
on medical practice, medical institutions and medical
consumers - on all of us!
L/R 154. (ANTH154) The Medical Anthropology of Alcohol Use. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Chrzan. The morality, rights, and responsibilities of alcohol use are hotly debated
in the United States. The rhetoric of appropriate use ranges from Puritan-inspired abstinence campaigns, through health-promoting
moderation arguments, to discourses legitimizing hedonism. The result of a lack of cleary cultural
paradigms for intoxicant use is clearly seen on college campuses, where movements for zero-tolerance alcohol bans coexist
with social rituals that include binge drinking. This course will utilize medical anthropology theory to: 1) contextualize
the phenomenon historically and cross-culturally; 2) encourage students to critically analyze existing paradigms
which determine acceptable usage and treatment modalities; 3) use the University of Pennsylvania campus as a local
case study/field site to investigate alcohol use. Students will move from theory to action through creation of a feasible
proposal addressing alcohol-use education on Penn's campus, or will participate in the modification and implementation
of existing proposals to promote rational and low-risk use of alcohol i the college community.
SM 170. (CLST170) Ancient Greek Medicine. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Rosen. The history of modern medicine as we know it in the West is remarkably recent;
until the nineteenth century prevailing theories of the body and mind, and the many therapeutic methods to combat disease,
were largely informed by an elaborate system developed centuries earlier in ancient Greece, at a period
when the lines between philosophy, medicine, and what we might consider magic, were much less clearly defined than
they are today. This course will examine the ways in which the Greeks conceptualized the body, disease, and healing,
and will compare these to medical culture of our own time. We will consider sources from Hippocrates,
Plato, and Aristotle to Galen and Soranus, and whenever possible we will juxtapose these writings with modern
discourse about similar topics. Several visitors from the Medical School are expected to participate on a regular basis.
All readings will be in English and no previous background in Classical Studies is required.
L/R 200. (ENVS200) Introduction to Environmental Analysis. (C) Giegengack. An introduction to philosophy, techniques, and selected details of the application
of a broad spectrum of disciplines that relate to environmental problems.
202. (STSC202) The Scientific Revolution. (M) Staff. The emergence of science in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries as an activity
that remade ideas of nature and society, that created new professions and institutions, and that ultimately transformed
human consciousness. Classical approaches to science, challenges and new departures, the mutation of research
inside and outside universities, new patterns in the dissemination of science and in public response.
206. (STSC247) Health and Disease in the Developing World. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff. This course will explore the current context of
health policy, health reform, and health service
delivery in the developing world. After examining
global economic and political context of health care,
students will analyze the role that economic development
plays in promoting or undermining health. Students
will examine key disease challenges such as tuberculosis,
malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS.
L/R 212. (STSC212) Science Technology & War. (C) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Lindee. In this survey we explore the relationships between technical
knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality
of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include
changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane
or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned
weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized
war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown;
the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in
Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s.
SM 216. (GSOC325) Women and Health. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff. This
course introduces students to anthropological and
sociological perspectives on the intersection of
gender and health. In the course we will examine
several theoretical approaches to women and health,
such as feminist and political economic perspectives.
We will explore key women's health issues such as
experiences with the medical establishment, health
disparities along lines of race and class, reprodutive
health, reproductive rights, body image and women's
experiences with HIV/AIDS. These issues will be explored
in the context of the United States and developing
countries.
SM 230. Fundamentals of Epidemiology. (A) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Kanetsky. This course introduces students to the basic tenets of epidemiology
and how to quantitatively study health at the population
level. Students learn about measures used to describe
populations with respect to health outcomes and the
inherent limitations in these measures and their
underlying sources of data. Analytic methods used
to test scientific questions about health outcomes
in populations then are covered, again paying particular
attention to the strength and weaknesses of the various
approaches.
SM 232. Social Epidemiology. (M) Cannuscio.
L/R 238. (ANTH238) Medical Anthropology. (C) Barg. Introduction to medical anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology
-- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and
illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships.
Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed.
SM 250. Social History of Mental Illness. (M) Tighe. This course will explore the history of mental illness in the United States,
from the eighteenth century to the present. It will focus on a set of questions: to what extent is mental illness socially
constructed? How does society arrive at its concepts of and attitudes towards both emotional and behavioral disturbance
as well as notions of adjustment and normality? The asylum movement of the nineteenth century, the rise of psychiatry
as a medical specialty, the role of the media and lay public in shaping its identity, legal issues such as commitment
and competence, as well as the development of psychopharmacology & an increasingly biologically based psychiatry
in the twentieth century will be examined.
252. Law and Medicine. (M) Staff. This course is intended to give students an in-depth understanding of
the ways in which medical practice and medical decision-making
are guided by modern American law. Students will
learn how the law's regulatory powers have been used
to set boundaries in medicine and, in turn, how medical
practice and theory have informed modern legal develoments.
The field of health care law sits at a crossroads
where many of life's "big questions" converge,
and consequently is shaped, more than any other legal
discipline, by social, ethical, cultural and economic
influences. By the end of this course, students should have an understanding both of the current
state of American health law, and of the social forces
that have shaped its historical development.
273. (SOCI273) Law, Medicine, and Public Policy. (B) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Bosk. First the course will develop a persepctive for viewing social problems
drawn largely on my own work as well as that of Gusfelds
and Edelman. Next we will explore the domains to
which a physician's expertise is limited using Weber,
Rosenberg and others. We will then develop a perspective
from anthropological and sociological literature
on the courts as public arenas for articulating Durkheimian
collective conscience. All of this theory building
is in the firsthalf of the seminar. The second half
of the course will involve intensive case study of
a few dilemmas which have wended their way through
the courts. I intend to look at "Baby Doe Regulations" and
the Intensive Care Nursery; the problem of the cessation
of life-supporting treatment; the legitimacy of mass
screen - be it for genetic defects or substance abuse;
and the propriety of surrogate motherhood.
275. (SOCI275) Medical Sociology. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Schnittker.
This course is designed to give the student a general
introduction to the sociological study of medicine.
Medical sociology is a broad field, covering topics
as diverse as the institution and profession of medicine,
the practice of medical care, and the social factors
that contribute to sickness and well-being. While
we will not cover everything, we will attempt to
cover as much of the field as possible through four
central thematic units: (1) the organization of development
of the profession of medicine, (2) the delivery of
health-care, (3) social cultural factors in defining
health, and (4) the social causes of illness. Throughout
the course, our discussions will be designed to understand
the sociological perspective and encourage the application of such a perspective
to a variety of contemporary medical issues.
SM 305. (SAST285, SAST335, SAST635) Health and Society in South Asia. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Sheehan. The countries of South Asia have traditional medical systems like Ayurveda and
Unani, major public health traditions and problems, as well as the global isses of health delivery and costs for aging
populations, in addition to changing threats like HIV. Health service delivery is highly uneven by income and education
group as well as by gender and region, and is heavily conditioned by the cultures of the area which influence
attitudes to preventive measures like nutrition and hygiene. This course provides an overview of these issues.
SM 310. (ANTH310) Anthropology and Biomedical Science. (M) Staff. An examination of the role of anthropology in biomedical research, focusing
upon health and disease as outcomes of biocultural systems. Where possible, students will engage in collection and
analysis of data and the dissemination of the results.
SM 311. (STSC311) Science, Medicine & Media. (C) Staff.
SM 312. (STSC312) Weapons of Mass Destruction. (C) Lindee. The course explores the historical development of traditional weapons
of mass destcruction such as chemical, nuclear and
biological agents, in addition to newer and seemingly
non-traditional weapons such as land mines and civilian
aircraft that can also be employed to cause large
numbers of injuries and deaths among civilian and
military populations. Through case studies in technology
and public health, students will evaluate the medical,
scientific, environmental, and cultural ramifications
of these weapons and their effect on human heal and
society by analyzing the rise of the military-industrial-academic-complex
in twentieth century America.
SM 321. (ANTH312, URBS312) Health in Urban Communities. (A) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff. This course will introduce students to anthropological approaches to health
and to theories of participatory action research. This combined theoretical perspective will then be put into practice
using West Philadelphia community schools as a case study. Students will become involved in design and implementation
of health-related projects at an urban elementary or middle school. As one of the course requirements, students
will be expected to produce a detailed research proposal for future implementation.
SM 331. (STSC339) Genes, Medicine and Politics. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Cowan. This course explores how human heredity has been scientifically constructed
as a political resource. Topics include the rise of eugenics movements around the world, the role of genetics in scientific
racism, the social meaning of genetic disease, and the development of the human genome project.
SM 335. (PSCI335) Healthy Schools. (M) Summers. This academically based community service research seminar will develop a pilot
program to test the efficacy of using service-learning teams of undergraduates and graduate students to facilitate
the development of School Health Councils (SHCs) and the Center for Disease Control's School Health Index (SHI) school
self-assessment and planning tool in two elementary schools in West Philadelphia. This process is intended to result
in a realistic and meaningful school health implimentation plan and an ongoing action project to put this plan into
practice. Penn students will involve member sof the school administration, teachers, staff, parents and ocmmunity
member sin the SHC and SHI process iwth a special focus on encouraging participation from the schools' students.
In this model for the use of Penn service- learning teams is successful, it will form the basis of on ongoing partnership
with the School District's Office of health, Safety & Physical Education to expand such efforts to more schools.
SM 338. (GSOC338, NURS338) "Sweet Little Old Ladies and Sandwiched Daughters":
Social Images and Issues in our Aging Society. (M) Kagan. Third or fourth year undergraduate students in any major BFS, JWS, and
NUHP students. This course is an intensive and focused introduction to social gerontology as
a trans-disciplinary lens through which to examine
aspects of social structure, actions, and consequences
in an aging society. A variety of sources are employed
to introduce students from any field focused on human
behavior and interaction to classical notions of
social gerontology and current scholarly inquiry
in gerontology. Field work in the tradition of thickdescription
creates a mechanism to engage students in newly gerontological
understandings of their life worlds and daily interactions.
Weekly field work, observing aspects of age and representations
of aging and being old in every day experiences forms,
is juxtaposed against close critical readings of
classical works in social gerontology and current
research literature as well as viewings of film and
readings of popular literature as the basis for student
analysis. Student participation in the seminar demands
careful scrutiny and critical synthesis of disparate
intellectual, cultural, and social perspectives using
readings and field work and creation of oral and
written arguments that extend understandings of the
issues at hand in new and substantive ways. Emphasis
is placed on analysis of field work and literature
through a series of media reports and a final term
paper.
SM 341. (GSOC318, NURS318) Race, Gender, Class and the History of American Health
Care. (A)Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Fairman. For Benjamin Franklin Scholars & Nursing Honors Students. This multidisciplinary course surveys the history of
American health care through the multiple perspectives
of race, gender, and class, and grounds th discussions
in contemporary health issues. It emphasizes the
links between the past and present, using not only
primary documents but materials from disciplines
such as literature, art, sociology, and feminist
studies that relate both closely and tangentially
to the health professions and health ca issues. Discussions
will surround gender, class-based, ethnic, and racial
ideas about the construction of disease, health and
illness; the development of health care institutions;
the interplay between religion and science; the experiences
of patients and providers; and the response to disasters
and epidemics.
359. (ANTH359) Nutritional Anthropology. (M) Staff. Human nutrition and nutritional status within context of anthropology, health,
and disease. Particular emphasis on nutritional problems and the development of strategies to describe, analyze,
and solve them. Students will participate in the Urban Nutrition Initiative, an academically based community service project
in local area schools.
SM 387. (HIST387, SAST388) Health Environments in Asia. (A) Ludden. A comparative social history seeking to explain today's nutritional deficits
among third world peoples. Based on an eco-system approach, it considers contending theories, traces the rise of the
world food system, and compares detailed case studies covering the period 1800-1980.
SM 404. (ENVS404) Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia.
(M) Pepino. ABCS Course. Local middle school visits required. A study of selected aspects of urban environments, with an emphasis on West
Philadelphia. Students will engage middle school children in exercises of applied environmental research.
SM 405. (ENVS405) Urban Environment II. (A) Pepino. Prerequisite(s): HSOC 404 or permission of instructor. ABCS Course. Local middle school visits required. A detailed analysis of urban environmental issues.
SM 407. (ENVS407) Urban Environments: Prevention of Tobacco Smoking in Adolescents.
(B) Pepino. ABCS Course. Local middle school visits required. This course will examine the short and long term physiological effects of smoking,
social influences, the effectiveness of cessation programs, tobacco advocacy and the impact of the tobacco settlement.
Penn Students will work with middle school students on a campaign to prevent addiction to tobacco smoke.
SM 408. (ENVS408) Urban Environments: The Urban Asthma Epidemic. (B) Pepino. ABCS Course. Visits to community centers required. This course will examine the epidemiology of asthma, the potential causes of
asthma, the public health issues and environmental triggers. Penn students will collaborate with the Children's Hospital's
clinical research study Community Asthma Prevention Program. Students will conduct environmental triggers
classes in the community.
411. (SAST386, SAST686) Contemporary Issues in South Asian Health. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Sheehan. This course will focus on birth, aging,
as well as selected chronic and infectious diseases
in South Asia. For each health condition/lifestyle
a framework of anysis awill develop incorporating
the complex set of factors thatcome into play. Sociocultural
beliefs; status markers--gender, class, caste,occupation;availability
and accessibility of publicand private health services;state,
national, and international plans and policies will
be consideredd. An overview of South Asian demography,
health problems and services will introduce the course.
412. (SAST387) Traditional Medicine in South Asia: Historic Orgins and Contemporary
Use. (G) Sheehan. In South Asia, traditional medical systems (Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha) have
deep affiliation with the scientific, philosophical, religious, and cultural systems. This course will examine the
historic origins and socio-cultural dimensions of these systems. Topics will include the encounter between traditional
and Western medicine in the nineteenth century; twentieth century revival and professionalizing activities
in the traditional systems; state and central government support for education, services, and research in traditional medicine;
their role in the overall health care system; and their use by patients in urban and rural areas. The world-wide interest
in complimentary and alternative medicine as it relates to the Indian medical systems will be considered.
SM 420. (STSC420) Research Seminar. (A) Staff. This seminar in research methods is required in the spring term for all juniors
planning on writing a senior thesis in HSOC or STSC.
SM 421. (HIST471) Medicine and Development. (C) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Feierman. This course is devoted to readings and research about medicine and development
in resource-poor countries. The focus is on medical instiutions and practices as seen within the broader context of
development. We try to understand changing interpretations of how development takes place--of its relationship
to technical knowledge, power and inequality. The course give students the opportunity to do intensive original
research.
SM 430. (STSC430) Disease & Society. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Aronowitz. What is disease? In this seminar students will ask and answer this question
by analyzing historical documents, scientific reports, and historical scholarship (primarily 19th and 20th century
U.S. and European). We will look at disease from multiple perspectives -- as a biological process, clinical entity,
population phenomenon, historical actor and personal experience. We will pay special attention to how diseases have
been recognized, diagnosed, named and classified in different eras, cultures and professional settings.
SM 437. (ANTH437, SOCI437) Cultural Models & Health. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Barg. There is a great deal of variation among population groups
in the incidence of and mortality from most major
diseases. Biological and social factors can account
for some of this variation. However, there is increasing
evidence that behavior- and the cultural models that
are linked to health behavior- play an important
role too. Cognitive anthropology is the study of
how people in social groups conceive of objects and
events in their world. It provides a framework for
understanding how members of different groups categorize
illness and treatment. It also helps to explain why
risk perception, helpseeking behavior, and decision
making styles vary to the extent they do. This seminar
will explore the history of cognitive anthropology,
schema theory, connectionism, the role of cultural
models, and factors affecting health decision making.
Methods for identifying cultural models will be discussed
and practiced. Implications for health communication
will be discussed.
SM 441. (ANTH441) Cross Cultural Approaches to Health. (M) Staff. This course will explore the ways that health and illness-related beliefs
and behaviors develop within communities. We will
identify the forces that shape these beliefs and
behaviors and ultimately affect who gets sick, who
gets well, and the very nature of the illness experience.
Emphasis will be given to the relationships among
sociocultural, political and biological factors and
the ways that these factors interact to produce the
variation that we see in health and illness related
attitudes, behaviors and outcomes across cultures.
499. Independent Study. (C) |