Dr. Caitlin Slodden
Fall 2017
HEALTH, COMMUNITY, & SOCIETY (SOC 191)
Class Meetings: Tuesdays, Fridays 9:30-10:50 a.m. Olin-Sang 101
Office Hours and Location:Fridays, Pearlman Hall 208 11:00 am-Noon
Course Overview:
This course will provide an introduction to the social contexts of health and illness in America (mostly the latter).Medical sociology, a subfield of sociology, examines topics such as the subjective experience of health and illness; political, economic, and environmental circumstances that threaten health; the social and cultural (rather than clinical or bodily) effects of medical practice; and the lived experience of illness. Using a critical perspective, this course will encourage students to situate health and illness in the larger social landscape, taking into account how social institutions like politics, the economy, and culture impact our health and well-being. The course is divided into two parts. The first section looks at the production of disease and illness, while the later section examines the social institutions created to treat it and the patient experience.
Teaching Assistants: We are lucky to have three talented and experienced teaching assistants working with us this semester. Jake, Nechama, Rebecca, and myself will work as a team to assess your written work and to answer any of your questions. Your work will be graded by all of us throughout the semester to ensure reliability and fairness. Feel free to reach out to any/all of us with any questions, concerns, or reflections.
★Jake Pullis
★Nechama Sammet Moring
★Rebecca Barton
Required Texts: Readings followed by ** will be posted on our Lattepage—if possible please print and bring to class. If this isn’t possible, please take notesfor your reference.
✓Conrad, Peter. The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives. 9th Edition. 2012. Worth Publishers (referred to as SHI).
✓Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. 1997. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
✓Porter, Roy. Bloods and Guts: A Short History of Medicine. 2004. New York: W.W. Norton.
✓Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor. 1978 (2011). New York: Picador Press.
Assessment:
Participation and Attendance (10%):This will be a reading intensive class. Everyone is expected to attend class having competed the readings. The format of class will differ; sometimes I will lecture, other times we will have discussions (small groups and as a larger class). I reserve the right to ask you for your thoughts or impressions on the readings at any time. Your regular attendance is essential to both your learning. Missing more than two classes will negatively impact your final grade, unless you have a note from a dean or the health center excusing your absence(s).We may have a few unannounced pop quizzes that will be factored into your participation/attendance grade—they can’t be made up or retaken.
Midterm (25%) and Final (25%): Students will be expected to complete two take-home exams: one mid-term and one final. These exams will ask you to critically engage with course materials, drawing connections to broader course concepts/topics. No outside research is required for these essays but you must engage with both lecture/class material and readings.
Two “Fieldwork” assignments (20% each): At two different points during the semester students will gather data, using their “sociological imagination” to explore in more detail how individuals understand and experience health and/or illness. Both projects will be based upon interviews that students conduct with family members, peers, or friends. However, for the second project you may choose to examine public Internet support groups devoted to a specific disease or condition. More details will be provided in class.
Class Rules:
Laptops are discouraged in class. I will most likely know if you are using them for personal use (email, Facebook, etc.). Also, please ensure that your cell phones are shut OFF during class. If you are using your phone I will ask you to step outside the classroom until you can give 100% of your focus to our discussion. I expect you to conduct yourselves like adults, showing your classmates and your professor respect. No side discussions; no sleeping! Please be aware that your classmates may hold different views about health or have very different experiences with the healthcare system—please respect their opinions. It is my job to maintain a welcoming, respectful class environment but you all have a critical role to play as students in the quality of our discussions.
Any power point slides I use will only be available in class. If you are absent it is your responsibility to get the notes from a classmate. I may lecture off information not found in your readings so class attendance is important.
Communication and Class Announcements:
I typically send a fair share of class emails via Latte. Please check your email regularly, especially if bad weather is forecasted. A syllabus is a living document, and as such, it is a guide. I reserve the right to “tweak” it as needed but I will always email the class with adequate notice.
Grading Policies:
Late papers will be marked down 1/3 a letter grade every day past the due date. For example: An “A” paper would become an A- paper if handed in one day late, etc. unless you have a note from the Dean’s office or the health center (Parson’s Role Release )
I do not give extra credit or allow rewrites. If you are not satisfied with your paper grade(s) come see one of the teaching assistants to discuss how you can improve on future assignments.
I highly recommend using the undergraduate writing center if you would like assistance in improving your work.
Academic Honesty:
The written work you hand in must be your own thoughts and expressions. Please review Brandeis’ policy on academic honesty and plagiarism in the student handbook. I hold a strict position with respect to plagiarism and incidences will be promptly reported to the Dean’s office.
Course Learning Objectives:
- To introduce students to sociological perspectives on disease and illness, exploring how these perspectives differ from the allopathic model of disease (the dominant paradigm in medicine and healthcare).
- To learn about the important differences between health, illness, and disease.
- To examine specific social and sociological factors in the production of disease.
- To exposestudents to the importance of the patients’ subjective experiences of illness as a legitimate source of knowledge.
- To expose students to the process of gathering qualitative data through two small field projects.
Course schedule
PART I: The Social Context of Health and Illness
Topic 1: Introduction and the Social Nature of Health and Disease
Readings:
For 9/5:
Porter, Roy.“Disease” (chapter 1 in Blood and Guts)
McKinlay and McKinlay. “Medical Measures” (SHI 1)
Dixon, Bernard. “Mirage of Health” **
Gillespie, Chris. “The Risk Experience: The Social Effects of Health Screening and the Emergence of Proto-Illness”**
Topic 2: The Social Production of Disease: Social Epidemiology
Readings:
For 9/12:
Cockerham, William.“The Social Causation of Health and Disease”**
For 9/15:
Syme and Berkman. “Social Class, Susceptibility, and Sickness” (SHI 2)
Wilkinson and Pickett.“Greater Equality: The Hidden Key to Better Health” (SHI 10)
For 9/19:
Williams and Sternthal. “Understanding Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health” (SHI 3)
Evans-Campbell, et al. Race and Mental Health, Past Debates, New Opportunities”**
Note: Possible film clip in class: When the Bough Breaks
NOTE: 9/22 NO CLASSSES AT BRANDEIS
Topic 3: Structural Inequality continued: Environmental/Occupational Injustice
Readings:
Snow, Rachel.“Sex, Gender, and Vulnerability” (SHI 4)
Hatzenbuehler, et al. “Structural Stigma and All-Cause Mortality in Sexual Minority Populations”(SKIM—read for the argument)
For 9/26:
Farmer, Paul. “Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine” (SHI 6)
Hochschild, Arlie. “The Rememberers” (Excerpt from Strangers in Their Own Land) **
Brown, Phil, et al. “Popular Epidemiology’s Community Response to Toxic Waste”**
Note:Film Screening: Toxic Bust (Sept. 29). Make sure you are caught up on readings.
Note: Looking Ahead: Interview Project #1 due in class Oct. 10.No Extensions.
Note: Looking ahead: Start Fadiman book.
Note: NO CLASS 11/3—Thursday Schedule at Brandeis.
Topic 4: Models of Illness and Public Health
Readings:
For 10/6:
Porter, Roy.“Doctors” and “The Body” in Blood and Guts.
Please read and look at photographs for the following National Geographic Article: art If the link above doesn’t work, go to National Geographic via the Brandeis library network and search “Venezuela Health Crisis” from
Continue reading Fadiman
Note:Interview Project #1 due in class Oct. 10.
Note: Hand out Midterm on 10/13 Due 10/20
Topic 5: Cultural Meanings of Illness
For 10/13:
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (Finish). Be ready to discuss entire book in small groups.
Topic 6: Medicine as Social Control
Readings:
For 10/17:
McKinlay and Marceau.“The End of the Golden Age of Medicine” (SHI 19)
For 10/20:
Wertz and Wertz. “Notes of the Decline of Midwives and the Rise of Medical Obstetricians”
Waggoner, Miranda. “Motherhood Preconceived: The Emergence of the Preconception Health and Healthcare Initiative.” **
Note: Midterm exam due in class.
Topic 7: Medicine as Social Control: The Medicalization of Society
Readings:
For 10/24:
Conrad, Peter. “The Shifting Engines of Medicalization” (SHI 41)
Shim,Janet.“Risk, Life Extension, and Pursuit of Medical Possibility”**
Russ, Ann.“Is There Life on Dialysis?” **
Topic 7.5: DTC Advertising, and Big Pharma.
Readings:
For 10/27:
Elliot, Carl. “The Detail Men” from White Coat, Black Hat**
Slodden and Conrad. “The Medicalization of Mental Illness” **
Note:10/24 Possible Film Screening
Part II. The Sociological Perspective
Topic 8: Social Meanings of Illness; Stigma
Readings:
For 10/31:
Sontag, Susan. Essay 1 in Illness as Metaphor
Slodden,Caitlin.“The Public Meanings of Colorectal Cancer”(recommended) **
For 11/3:
Spotlight: Eating Disorders and the Pro-Ana Movement
Brumberg, Joan. Excerpt from Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa**
Pascoe and Boero.“Pro-Anorexia Communities and Online Interaction”**
Note: Make contact with interview participant for project # 2 and start crafting interview questions. Due 11/17 in class.
Spotlight: The Addiction Epidemic and Stigma
For 11/7:
Link and Phelan.“Conceptualizing Stigma” **
Hari, Johan. Chapters 12, 13, 14 from Chasing The Scream**
Note:11/10: Guest Speaker
Topic 9: The Experience of Illness: The Psychosocial Level
Readings:
For 11/14:
Barker, Kristen.“Self-Help Literature and the Making of an Illness Identity: The Case of Fibromyalgia Syndrome” (SHI 14)
Conrad, Peter.“The Meaning of Medications: Another Look at Compliance” (SHI 15)
Frank, Arthur. “The Remission Society” (SHI 16)
Recommended/Optional: Scott, Allison. “Illness Meaning of AIDS Among Women with HIV” (SHI 12)
Topic 10: Illness Meaning Making Continued & the Internet
Readings:
For 11/17:
Pitts, Victoria. “Illness and the Internet Empowerment: Writing and Readings Breast Cancer in Cyberspace (SHI 42)
Hartzband and Groopman. “Untangling the Web—Patients, Doctors, and the Internet” (SHI 43)
Note: 2nd fieldwork project due 11/17 in class.
Topic 11: Medicine and Illness in Practice
Readings:
For 11/21:
Michler, Elliot.“The Struggle Between The Voice of Medicine and the Voice of the Lifeworld” (SHI 31)
Anspach, Renee.“The Language of Case Presentation” (SHI 34)
Note: NO CLASS 11/24—Thanksgiving
For 11/28:
Slodden, Caitlin. “Unspeakable Truths: Patient and Lay Caregiver Communications” **
Timmermans,Stefan. “Social Death as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” (SHI 33)
Topic 10: Self Help and Mutual Aid
Readings:
For 12/1:
Kronenfeld, Jean. "Selfcare as a Panacea for the Ills of the Health Care- System”**
Humphreys, Keith. “Individual & Social Benefits of Mutual Aid Self Help Groups”**
Possible 3rd readings TBA
12/5 and 12/8: Overflow, Wrap Up, Hand Out Final Essay Prompt.
**FINAL EXAM DUE IN SOC. OFFICE DEC. 15 by NOON. NO EXTENSIONS. Please review late paper policy.
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