Health Promotion: Theory, Research, and

HLTH PRMTION: THRY, RSRCH

Understanding why people behave the way they do, what makes them change their behavior, and how these factors relate to health status and quality of life is critically important for public health professionals. The evidence for the role of individual behavior in all the major health problems throughout the world is indisputable. Equally indisputable is the complex array of factors that combine to produce behavior and deter behavior change. The purpose of this course is to build upon the material presented in the Core in order for students to be able to use individual, interpersonal, organizational and community level public health theories to explain and change health behavior.

• R 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• T 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Jane Bogart
  Info
• Instructor: Christian Gloria
  Info
• 3 points

Confronting Obesity: Society, Structures

CONFRONT OBESITY:SOC,STRC

Obesity is a serious condition that increases risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancer, and several other deleterious health outcomes. The US and NYCare facing an Obesity epidemic that threatens not only to cause increasingly severe health consequences but also billions of dollars in annual medical costs. Moreover, for the first time in decades, it threatens to reduce the life expectancies of today's youth by overwhelming public health improvements brought about in the 20th century. Numerous secular trends have precipitated the dramatic increases in obesity that have occurred over the past several decades. This course will provide a broad overview of the socio-cultural factors associated with the obesity epidemic; identify promising strategies for intervention; and enable students to craft and assess multi-pronged solutions to this multi-factorial problem.

• T 5:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Gretchen Van Wye
  Info
• 3 points

Community Engagement Practice

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PRAC

The need for more effective and equitable engagement with communities has become increasingly evident to public health professionals in recent years. Now, more than ever, the importance of developing deeper and more engaged academic/institutional-community partnerships is necessary to address systems of structural inequity. However, developing these relationships requires not only knowledge of equity-based partnering formats, but the cultivation of complex skill sets that allow public health practitioners to most fully develop relationships across all phases of community collaboration. Two valuable forms of community engagement that public health practitioners and students can make use of are community-based participatory research and service learning, which are the focus of this course. Additionally, this course acknowledges that community engagement is a diverse space where people from a variety of professional and personal backgrounds come together. For many years, people working in the technology space have recognized the benefits of “matrixed teams,” similarly over the past few years the notion of interprofessionalism has become an important and required aspect of allied health and public health professional training. Research has shown that bringing together students from two or more professions to learn about, from, and with each other is extremely effective in all forms of collaboration (within research and intervention teams and with communities) and ultimately lead to improved health outcomes. According to the World Health Organization, “Once students understand how to work interprofessionally, they are ready to enter the workplace as a member of the collaborative practice team. This is a key step in moving health systems from fragmentation to a position of strength.” Pinsert course number – insert studio name 2 of 24 The overall goal of this course is for students to learn about and begin to practice the tenets of three frameworks: Interprofessional Education (IPE), Service-Learning (SL), and Community?Based Participatory Research (CBPR). With regard to interprofessional engagement, the course will provide students with a solid understanding of four key IPE competencies: roles/responsibilities, teams/teamwork, ethics/values, and communication. Complementing this, the course will introduce and integrate SL pedagogy to prepare students to engage in community service projects. The SL model prioritizes three aspects of project implementation: student learning, direct attenti

• R 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Carole L Hutchinson
  Info
• 3 points

Digital Storytelling: Why Public Health

DIG STORYTELL: WHY PUBLIC

This interactive two-day workshop will teach students the fundamental concepts and skills of digital storytelling. Digital stories are multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and often a narrative voice. Digital storytelling can be a powerful, multi-dimensional tool for community-based public health program enhancement, strategic communication, and advocacy (Hinyard & Kreuter, 2007). Students will share first-person narratives about public health passions and/or experiences and turn them into videos that can be used for training, community mobilization, advocacy, and more.
The workshop will be led by facilitators from and curriculum designed StoryCenter. StoryCenter is an international non-profit organization that assists people with the use of digital media tools to craft and share stories that lead to learning, action, and positive change. For the past 20 years, StoryCenter has been supporting researchers, educators, social justice organizers, and advocates in understanding how first-person narrative and participatory digital media production can advance a broad range of social justice and public health goals.

• F 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Gina M Wingood
  Info
• 1 points

Poisoned Worlds: Corporate Behavior & Pu

CORP BEHAVIOR & PUBLIC HE

This course will trace the growing importance of occupational and environmental diseases such as tobacco related cancers, asbestosis and mesothelioma, and lead poisoning. Through the use of documents gathered in lawsuits, searches of medical and public health literature and other documentary sources students will evaluate debates about responsibility for arising conditions and chronic diseases. It will focus on the rising awareness of the relationship between low-level environmental exposures to synthetic materials and new conditions such as endocrine disruptions linked to BPA, behavioral problems linked to low level lead poisoning, PCBs in the environment and mesothelioma due to low level exposures to asbestos, among other issues. This course will be run as a seminar. Students will present summaries of recent scholarship on environmental and occupational disease. They will also develop timelines, bibliographies and a historical narrative on the evolution of knowledge about danger for a particular chemical, toxin, environmental pollutant or disease. As the semester progresses and as students begin to form the basis of their final project, students will take more responsibility for directing the seminar. Throughout the course students will be exposed to internal corporate documents developed through court cases. It will sensitize students
to the ways in which public understanding of danger was shaped by corporate behavior through close inspection of a number of specific industries, among them: lead, chemicals, food, asbestos, and silica. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to: analyze the history of knowledge regarding dangerous pollutants; critically discuss the variety of legal documents that address responsibility for disease; explain how historical knowledge can aid communities and individuals in quests for justice; utilize corporate internal documents in consumer court cases and education; appreciate the long history of debate over industrial and environmental damage.

• W 8:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
• Instructor: David Rosner
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Tutorial Sociomedical Sciences

TUTORIAL SOCIOMEDICAL SCI

Primarily for students who wish to acquire further knowledge and research skills in areas of special interest. Individual or small group reading tutorials or guided independent research. Permission required; contact Academic Coordinator

• Instructor: Robert E Fullilove
  Info
• 0-6 points

Evaluation Of Health Programs

EVALUATION OF HEALTH PROG

Program evaluation is an essential competence in public health. Across all areas of public health, stakeholders pose questions about effectiveness and impact of programs and interventions. This course will examine principles, methods and practices of evaluating health programs. A range of evaluation research designs and methods will be introduced and strategies to address challenges in real world program settings will be emphasized. The course will incorporate examples of evaluations of actual health programs and opportunities to learn through professional program evaluation experiences of the instructor. The combination of lectures, textbook readings, examples, discussions, in-class exercises, and an extensive applied group assignment to design an evaluation for a real program will help students gain evaluation skills and an appreciation for the art and science of program evaluation. The goal is for students to learn competencies required of an entry-level program evaluator, including design and implementation of evaluation studies and interpretation and communication of evaluation findings.

• W 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Robert E Fullilove
  Info
• 3 points

SMS Master's Thesis

SOCIOMEDICAL SCIENCES MAS

The Master's Thesis is the capstone requirement of all students in all tracks of the MPH program of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences (SMS). The thesis is intended to reflect the training you have received in the MPH program and demonstrate your ability to design, implement, and present professional work relevant to your major field of interest.

Writing the thesis is an essential experience that could further your career development. Employers seek in potential employees with a MPH degree the ability to write articles and reports, and want to see evidence that you can design studies, analyze data, write a needs assessment, and/or design a health program. If you plan to continue your academic studies, developing expertise and demonstrating your ability as a writer are two important skills required of doctoral candidates. A well-written paper is a great asset that you can bring with you to a job interview or include in an application for further study. The thesis ought to demonstrate your ability to think clearly and convey your thoughts effectively and thereby provide an example of your understanding and insight into a substantive area in which you have developed expertise.

• F 10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Christian Gloria
  Info
• 2 points

Seminar in Sexuality, Gender, Health, an

SEXUALITY,GENDER,HLTH-HUM

This seminar uses the new scholarship on sexuality to engage with ongoing theoretical conversations and activism in human rights, gender, and health. Pressed by the increasing recognition of the importance of sexuality in a wide range of rights and advocacy work (for example, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and sexual violence), theorists and advocates alike have struggled with complex, sometimes fluid and elusive nature of sexuality. What is this sexuality" in need of rights and health? How does it manifest itself across a range of persons and cultures? And how can culturally and historically situated work about sexuality inform and improve legal and advocacy interventions? The seminar also turns a critical eye on recent scholarship, in light of current issues raised by policy interventions and advocacy in many countries and cultures. Finally, the seminar aims to promote dialogue and exchange between academic, activist, and advocacy work."

• T 5:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Emily S Bishop
  Info
• 3 points

Sociomedical Sciences Master s Capston

SMS Master s Capstone

The SMS Master’s Capstone course is required for all students in the Master of Science (MS), Accelerated Master of Public Health (MPH), and 4+1 MPH programs of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences (SMS). For MS students, the culminating high-quality written manuscript of this course involves original research or program evaluation based either on primary data collected by the student or secondary analysis of available data. For Accelerated and 4+1 MPH students, the culminating high-quality written manuscript of this course involves comprehensive review of the literature. The student’s work must focus within the field of sociomedical sciences and demonstrate integration of the coursework and training from the master’s program. Based on each student’s methods and areas of study, they will be matched with a faculty sponsor who will provide supervision and mentoring throughout the course.

• F 10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Christian Gloria
  Info
• 3 points

Theories and Perspectives on Sexuality a

THEOR & PERSP ON SEXUALTY

This course will provide an overview of theoretical perspectives and concepts relevant to the study of sexuality, particularly as they relate to public health. This entails exploring perspectives from across the social sciences, with an emphasis on sociology, anthropology, and histroy, and somewhat more limited reference to work in psychology and political science. Drawing upon assigned readings, lectures, discussions and individual assignments, students will develop the capacity to identify the strengths and limitations of perspectives used to frame research and interventions related to sexuality. Although the substantive focus of this course is the theorization of sexuality, over the course of the semester we will address a more fundamental question in public health – namely, what shapes ‘health behaviors’? Developing a sophisticated conceptualization of why people engage in behaviors that have detrimental health consequences, or conversely why they fail to take health-enhancing actions, lays the foundation for effective health promotion policies and programs. Because a great deal of sexual health promotion programming draws implicitly on behavioral science and interpersonal-level determinants of health practices, a goal of this course is to counter-balance that through an emphasis on the broader structural and institutional determinants of sexual practices.

• W 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Jessie Ford
  Info
• 3 points

Structural Approaches to Global Health

STRUCTURL APPROACH-GLOBAL

In recent years, the global public health field has begun to move away from a focus on individual behavior change to one that focuses on “structural and environmental approaches” for health research and intervention. But what are “structural and environmental approaches,” and why the shift? Understanding the definitions, history and evolution of such approaches is important for global public health researchers and practitioners, providing a new way of thinking about improving the health of people locally and globally, in addition to exploring how structural and environmental interventions can be effectively evaluated. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an introduction to the concept of structural and environmental approaches, an understanding of why such approaches are essential for the future of an effective global health agenda, and a historical overview of the transition in the field from a focus on individual behavior change, to a focus on cultural context, and finally to one of social structural approaches. The class will also include a life course framework into structural approaches for global health and perspectives on the digital environment. This course fits into the MPH curriculum in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences by increasing students’ knowledge and skills of key perspectives and approaches to health research and intervention that incorporate social science theories into global public health interventions.

• M 4 p.m.-6:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Anton Castellanos Usigli
  Info
• 3 points

Social and Economic Determinants of Heal

SOCL & ECON DETERMNTS OF

Disparities in health and illness related to social and economic inequality in the U.S. Theoretical and empirical research on factors linked to class, gender, racial and ethnic differences that have been hypothesized to explain the generally poorer health and higher rates of mortality among members of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Concepts, theories and empirical evidence will be examined to expand our understanding of the impact of structural factors on health behavior, lifestyles and outcomes.

• T 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• R 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Kim J Hopper
  Info
• 3 points

Coercion and Persuasion in Public Health

PERSUASION & COERCION-PUB

To prevent and control the spread of disease, public health professionals choose from a continuum of possible approaches ranging from persuasive to coercive. At one end of the spectrum, public health seeks to induce voluntary actions or behaviors by appealing to reason and providing information and education. At the other end, it forces people to take actions or refrain from taking actions through the use of laws and regulations. In the middle lies an ethically ambiguous gray area of manipulation, psychological and emotional pressure, incentives, and “nudges.” The difficulty of choosing among these approaches was dramatically apparent during the COVID pandemic. The polarizing debates over issues such as mask mandates and recommendations, travel restrictions, school and business closings, and vaccine mandates illustrated the challenges of using both coercive and persuasive approaches.
This course will explore the uses of coercion and persuasion in public health from the standpoints of ethics, policy, and law. We will analyze a broad range of public health practices ranging from less to more forceful. We will address questions such as: When, if ever, is coercion ethically justified? What principles should guide its application? How should social factors such as race, class, and gender influence our evaluation of coercive measures? What alternatives to coercion are available for achieving a given health outcome? What ethical problems may persuasive public health measures raise? In addition to seminar-style discussion, students will participate in a variety of in-class group activities and exercises that will enable them to critically engage with the course materials.

• M 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: James K Colgrove
  CULPA: 9 Info
• 3 points

Ethics Of Public Health

ETHICS OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health policy is always the product of controversy. Most typically such conflicts are played out in terms of a clash among scientific considerations. But even when not explicit, the controversies entail political tensions and ethical concerns. In this course we will examine the political and ethical dimensions of public health policy, focusing on issues of justice and liberty. Four domains of public health will be examined: the prevention of diseases associated with personal behavior, protection against occupational hazard, epidemic control, and access to health care.
Students will write one short paper based on the readings in Part I and a final term paper of 20-25 pages based on a subject of your own choosing and a conference with Professor Bayer. This course will provide students with an opportunity to examine the underlying ethical tensions in public health. Students will be able to identify the conflicting values at stake and will have the opportunity to learn about how ethical debates unfold and are (sometimes) resolved.
Critical reading, lectures, in class analysis and debate and a final paper will be used by students to achieve the above learning objectives (competencies).

• M 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Caitlin E McMahon
  Info
• 3 points

Chronic Disease and Community Health

CHRONIC DISEASE,URB, COMM

Our objective is to look at a public health approach to chronic diseases in which prevention rather than treatment is emphasized. Although chronic diseases are numerous, our focus will be on those that are strongly correlated with obesity and for which the creation of opportunities for physical activity are important elements of our prevention agenda. Obesity has replaced smoking as the number one avoidable risk factor for mortality in the United States, and given the increased availability of funding for public health interventions in this domain, focusing our attention on the set of issues is an idea whose time has come. Often, prevention approaches in public health focus on the individual and on changing individual risk behaviors. In this course, by contrast, we will focus heavily on social and environmental factors that affect the choices individuals make about exercise, diet, and taking advantage of preventive services that promote health and prevent disease. Questions are intended to demonstrate that our success in promoting health behaviors will depend in large measure on the social and physical environment of the community. Moreover, interventions to reduce the risk of chronic disease have to consider the social resources that are available - or that can be created - in each setting where health promotion programs and policies are to be implemented. At the core of our efforts this semester, therefore, we will be examining the relationship between individuals, their health seeking and/or risk taking behaviors, and the manner in which their social and physical environment function as part of the problem or as the potential source of a solution.

• W 5:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Robert E Fullilove
  Info
• 3 points

Community Based Participatory Research

COMM-BASED PARTICIPATORY

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has received growing attention over the past several decades as international, domestic, funding agencies and researchers have renewed a focus on an approach to health that recognizes the importance of social, political and economic systems to health behaviors and outcomes. The long-standing importance of this approach is reflected in the 1988 Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) landmark report The Future of Public Health and many other publications. The report indicates that communities and community-based organizations are one of six potential partners in the public health system and that building community-based partnerships is a priority area for improving public health. CBPR is not a method but an approach to research and practice that involves the active collaboration of the potential beneficiaries and recognizes and values the contributions that communities and their leaders can make to new knowledge and to the translation of research findings into public health practice and policy. CBPR - as it is often referred - is a collaborative approach to research that recognizes the value of equitably involving the intended beneficiaries throughout all phases of research and program planning, implementation, and evaluation. CBPR is also an important approach to advance health and social equity and is essentially a way to promote and operationalize health and social equity in research settings. This course will provide an examination of the relevant literature in CBPR with a focus on the history, theoretical framework and application of CBPR within public health programs and research, with special emphasis on the role of CBPR in advancing health and social equity.

• M 4 p.m.-6:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Renata Schiavo
  h-index: 10 Info
• 3 points

Designing Public Health Interventions

DESIGNING PUBLIC HEALTH I

Behavioral and environmental factors are major determinants of today's most pressing health issues. Community-level behavior change and health promotion interventions are promising strategies to address these issues on a large scale. This course will provide an overview of program planning, implementation, and evaluation – essential public health services and fundamental competencies for professionals working in the field of public health. Although the PRECEDE-PROCEED model will be used as the framework for the course structure and individual assignments, other planning models will also be presented and discussed. By the end of the course, students will develop a deep understanding of the complex processes involved in organizing public health programs, and learn the skills necessary to create a program and evaluation plan in a local community.

• M 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• M 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Christian Gloria
  Info
• Instructor: Daniel P Giovenco
  h-index: 19 Info
• 3 points

Intro to SMS Research Methods

INTRO-SOCIOMED SCI RES ME

• T 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• W 5:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Justin R Knox
  Info
• Instructor: Paris Adkins-Jackson
  Info
• 3 points

Ethnographic Methods in Health Research

ETHNOGRAPHIC MTHDS/HLTH R

Among the more durable axioms of public health is this: context matters. For ethnography, this is not only an article of faith, but its raison d’etre: ethnography was invented to take context’s measure in order to understand what we’re observing. For our purposes, ethnography refers to both a method – that recursive process of participating, observing, writing/recording and reflecting, in (usually) unfamiliar spaces – and the product of that method – the often lengthy, discursive book- or feature-length documentary that results. Ethnography is distinctive among qualitative research methods in part because of its time commitment, its insistence upon extended experience felt and witnessed, rather than elicited and recounted. It is also experience examined, cross-examined, renewed and re-examined. To navigate as an ethnographer requires negotiated access (sometimes negotiated repeatedly), shifting measures of immersion and reflection, mastery of a mixed toolkit of inquiry, and an acquired ease with uncertainty. If ethnographers commonly find themselves nagged by an aching sense of inadequacy at what they’ve learned, they are nonetheless bent on wresting from it some provisional reconstructions and analyses. Setting aside such signature anxieties, we can also say that ethnography is documentary infused with theory and argument; it is gesture caught, phrased and interpreted. If capturing culture (that staged and enacted document) is its objective, then a certain “talent for the makeshift” (Auden) is essential. Although writing (really: rewriting) remains its preferred medium, it is one rapidly being joined by visual technologies as well, although that variation will not be explored here). This, then, is an intensive seminar in the nuts and bolts of reading and doing such work – and of the reflexivity required to do it well.

This fall our substantive focus will be ethnographies of madness and its treatment, with special attention to emerging work by service users and/or people with direct experience with psychosis – primarily in North America, but touching on experience elsewhere as well.

• R 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Kim J Hopper
  Info
• 3 points

Contemporary Debates in Sociomedical Sci

CONTEMP DEBATES-SOCIOMED

This course is the second part of a two-semester seminar that will essay a selective genealogy of the major theoretical traditions under girding contemporary practice in the sociomedical sciences. The ongoing focus of the seminar in the spring semester - like the historical review in the fall - will be guided by the framing interests and signature emphases of the department: the political economy of public health, globalization and marginalization, urban environs in transformation, social structures and axes of inequality, disparities in morbidity and mortality, agency and identity. The overall aim is to familiarize students with the relevant interpretive/analytic traditions, provide a rehearsal stage for testing out particular tools and frameworks in compare and contrast exercises, and build the theoretical foundations that will enable them to critically assess contemporary work in the field. In this second part of the sequence, greater emphasis will be given to research by faculty members in the department, as well as by others working in related frameworks. Both theoretical and methodological approaches to the sociomedical sciences will be examined in seeking to develop an overview of contemporary debates in the field. Close reading, class discussion, and reflective writing will be the practical means we employ to get there.

• T 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Kim J Hopper
  Info
• 3 points

Tutorial in Sociomedical Sciences

TUTORIAL SOCIOMEDICAL SCI

Primarily for students who wish to acquire further knowledge and research skills in areas of special interest. Individual or small group reading tutorials or guided independent research. Permission required; contact Academic Coordinator

• Instructor: Justin R Knox
  Info
• 0-6 points

Dissemination and Implementation Science

DISSEMINATION/IMPLEMENTAT

While we have made tremendous scientific progress in public health and medicine, there is a large gap between research and practice. It takes 15 to 20 years for scientific knowledge and discoveries to translate into evidence-based policies and programs that impact widespread population health. An emerging science seeks to eliminate this gap and facilitate the successful dissemination, implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices. This course will introduce students to the field of Dissemination and Implementation research and science, to prepare them as practitioners and researchers on how to apply scientific advances in 'real world' settings. Through readings, discussion, lectures, and application, students will learn how to: explain the terminology of this field and the contribution this field makes to public health; examine the evidence base of effective interventions and policies; explain the theoretical and historical foundations of the field; critique and design research studies for the purpose of dissemination and implementation; and evaluate the critical factors influencing dissemination, implementation and sustainability in public health, community, healthcare, and social service settings. Students will be required to write two brief writing assignments, lead a journal club, present a poster presentation, and write a final paper that allows them develop a dissemination, implementation and sustainability plan for an existing program or policy.

• W 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Kathryn Lovero
  Info
• 3 points

Society, Health Equity and Health Commun

SOCIETY,HLTH EQUITY&HLTH

The root causes of health inequities are numerous and community-or population-specific. They relate to individual, social, and political determinants of health. Because of its multisectoral and multidisciplinary nature, health communication has emerged as an essential discipline in our quest to achieve health and racial equity both in the U.S. and globally. Among others, the ever increasing socioeconomic divide in the US and in a variety of countries, the persistence of social discrimination in our society (e.g., racism, gender bias, bias toward low-income groups or the LGBTQI+ community, xenophobia, and other forms of implicit and/or institutional bias) as a key barrier to health and well-being, the “empathy crisis”, as well as the disproportionate burden of the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized, vulnerable and underserved groups have demonstrated that making health communication programs work requires the active participation of affected individuals, communities, and multiple professional sectors in the design of health communication interventions. This involves a diversity-minded, system-driven, and population-specific approach to the development of health communication interventions. This approach also includes a systematic effort to rebuild trust among many groups and stakeholders and address barriers that prevent people from leading healthy and productive lives as well as message design strategies that are based on storytelling and cultural humility principles. This course focuses on a review and critical analysis of health communication approaches and strategies that are inclusive of marginalized, vulnerable and underserved populations and seek to improve health and social outcomes among these groups. The course discusses the role of health communication in the health equity movement, and will prepare students to design effective health communication interventions to reach and engage a variety of groups in support of health and racial equity.

• T 5:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Renata Schiavo
  h-index: 10 Info
• 3 points

New Media and Health

NEW MEDIA AND HEALTH

New media, including online and digital media technologies, are introducing significant change in contemporary societies and lifestyles. Recent examples include the rapid and powerful diffusion of social media and mobile technologies. The emergence of new media and the online revolution intersect with public health in many ways, raising new questions and affording new opportunities for intervention. Public health professionals of the 21st century must attend to and leverage these trends.
This course will introduce and contextualize the role of new media in public health and prepare students to utilize new media tools when designing interventions. The student learning experience is designed to demonstrate new media technologies through a blend of online and classroom modalities, allowing students to take the perspectives of technology users, designers, implementers, and researchers. The course will introduce examples of new media in public health through demonstrations, guest speakers, and literature, and synthesize significant lessons across examples. Students will also engage in design of a new media technology-based project. While learning about the practice of designing and implementing new media tools for public health, the students will take a critical social science perspective, drawing on literature from social informatics and social science of technology. The course is intended for MPH students, particularly those completing certificates in Health Communication, Public Health Informatics, or Health Promotion Research and Practice. This
is a required course for the Health Communication certificate.

• F 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Carina Schmid
  Info
• 3 points

Seminar in Health Communication

Sem in Health Communicati

Section one: This seminar exposes students to career paths and professional development in the field of public health communication. Students will work with career service experts to gain professional skills in resume writing, interview training and online portfolio development specifically tailored to health communication careers. Students will gain insight into the scope of career options and the pathways to these careers by interacting with recent graduates and seasoned experts in health communication. Additionally, students will acquire skills in designing health communication tools (i.e. newsletters). The seminar will address career development issues specific to students' matriculation in the MPH program at the MSPH. **Required for first-year Health Communication Certificate students.
Section two: This interactive seminar will teach students essential communication skills and strengthen students’ ability to utilize innovative, media-based strategies to address public health challenges. Through hands-on workshops, students will be introduced to graphic design, social media management and content production, digital strategy and analytics, and storytelling. This course will equip students with skills needed to promote public health campaigns using visual communications and digital media. Additionally, students will gain an understanding of how they can use social media to achieve organizational objectives and measure the effectiveness of those efforts. This class will ensure that public health students graduate with a skillset in the areas of media, communications and graphics.

• R 10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• W 10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Gina M Wingood
  Info
• 0.5 points

Communicating Health Risks to the Public

COMMUNICATING HEALTH RISK

This course explores risk communication theories and strategies, and their application to effective communication in public health settings. The processes and effects of persuasive communication as they relate to message framing are also explored. Students learn how to use effective communication to advance individual and community-level decision-making about public health issues. Specifically, health risk communication through interpersonal, organizational, and mediated channels will be explored, with particular attention paid to message features that are believed to generate predictable effects. Students will learn how communication impacts the public’s experience of health risks, and will practice designing and delivering culturally competent messages about potential health hazards. This course is highly experiential and provides students opportunities to practice delivering a variety of public health messages and receive peer and expert feedback in the protected environment of the classroom.

• F 1 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Carina Schmid
  Info
• 1.5 points

The Global Menstrual Movement: Understan

Glob Menstrual Mov: Pol &

In recent years, a global movement has begun around menstruation, ranging from research and policies addressing the barriers that school girls may be facing in low-resource contexts, to initiatives fighting the on-going stigma experienced by girls, women and people with periods in high- and low resource contexts, to the advocacy focused on period poverty. How did this global movement begin? What is the existing evidence base for addressing menstruation as a public health issue? And what gaps remain? The purpose of this course is to provide students with a foundation on the topic of menstruation, including the existing research, program and policy approaches underway globally, to equip students with an understanding of the research methodologies most appropriate for understanding the experiences of those who menstruate, and the ways in which advocacy has served to shift attention to this fundamental issue. Students in this course will learn to analyze the current status of the global menstruation movement through debates, news media critiques, and a proposal addressing ‘new frontiers’ in menstruation. The course fits into the MPH curriculum in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences by increasing students’ knowledge and skills of key perspectives and approaches to research and intervention around menstruation that include social science theories.

• T 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Marni J Sommer
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 1.5 points

Nature: History & Politics of Environmen

Encounters with Nature

This course offers an understanding of an interdisciplinary field of environmental, health and population history and will discuss historical and health, environmental and disease policy debates with a cross cutting, comparative relevance. This course uses global South Asia as a microcosm, and views it as a connected space with mobile human networks and migrations, and as an analytic lens to discuss critical, global debates on the politics of public health, the uses of science and power of experts and expertise in the South; and to analyze continuing structures of colonization, marginalization and the connected implications of globalization for environment and health in society. This course will help students analyze debates on the historical structures and transnational relations underlying colonization, decolonization and globalization in the domain of environment and health

They will be able to describe and explain how public health and environmental knowledge has been focused on prejudices and misconceptions relating to race, ethnicity, gender and poverty, that are also justified by narrow teleological, biological, ecological and social ideas and justifications. It focuses on several historical conjunctures and scales of historical analysis set in Asia and more widely in the global South, and aims to demonstrate and critique current social actors and multinational and local private, corporate interests that have limited equitable access to health, safe environments for communities and societies, and to see the pathways that have led to 'endemic risks' and crises to our global health and climate.

It is in a seminar format and expectations are to critically analyze, present readings build class participation and training in research paper writing, and strengthen conceptual methods and analysis of primary sources.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
  Info
• 4 points

Tutorial in Sociomedical Sciences

TUTORIAL SOCIOMEDICAL SCI

Primarily for students who wish to acquire further knowledge and research skills in areas of special interest. Individual or small group reading tutorials or guided independent research.

• Instructor: Jennifer S Hirsch
  Wikipedia Info
• 0-6 points