Courses Offered (as schedule allows)

CURRENTLY TAUGHT

SHS1 Social Dimensions of Illness and Doctoring.  The course aims to help medical students better understand the illness experience and how social contexts influence health and disease. Throughout the course we discuss historical and contemporary issues influencing the practice of medicine and the illness experience with a focus on health equity.  Topics include culture, disability, gender identity, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic inequalities.

SHS2 Medical Ethics and the Health Care System. This course builds on foundations in humanities and social sciences to examine how American medicine came to be the way it is, what our health care system is like now and as it changes, what, if anything, physicians and others can or should do to alter it.  Throughout the course we evaluate critical issues in medical ethics and health care reform.

SHS3 Beyond Borders: Improving the Health of Immigrant Populations in the United States. With a focus on Latin American migration to the US, this course introduces students to the inter-relationships between migration and health.  Students gain an understanding of the various migration experiences and the ways in which immigration and settlement policies influence the health and well-being of immigrant populations. Students also have an opportunity to explore and evaluate key health issues affecting migrant populations and critique initiatives to improve the health of immigrant populations in the US.

PREVIOUSLY TAUGHT

IDST 184 Research Beyond Academia (1). A seminar course designed to introduce students to research as it is practiced by researchers in the triangle and beyond. Researchers working in state and federal government (e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency) as well as researchers in for-profit and nonprofit businesses (e.g., the Research Triangle Institute or the North Carolina Museum of Art) discuss their research and the development of their careers. Pass/Fail only

IDST 194 Modes of Inquiry (1). A seminar in which faculty discuss their own work. Students will learn how research topics are defined and investigated and how undergraduates can engage in discovery. Four sections per academic year. Pass/Fail only

PLCY 089 United States Immigration (3). A first-year, research exposure seminar designed to introduce students to theories of migration, theories of acculturation and assimilation, and the ways in which policies influence the health and educational attainment of immigrant youth. As a research-exposure course, students learn to conduct and synthesize interviews regarding immigration experiences and to share their results with their peers.

PLCY 210 Policy Analysis and Innovation (3). Students will develop a working knowledge of the foundational theories of the public policy discipline and the integral institutions of public policy.  Incorporates current substantive issues in the United States and international policy.  Students will explore, summarize, and evaluate alternative policy solutions.

PLCY 220 The Politics of Public Policy (3). Examines approaches to American politics and public policy and analyzes why government responds to problems in predictable ways.

PLCY 349 Immigration Policy in the 21st Century (3). The objective of this course is to enhance students’ understanding of the causes and consequences of United States immigration within a social, historical, political, and economic context.

PLCY 710 Public Policy Analysis (3). This graduate-level course examines the history and development of the field of public policy and several theoretical frameworks that contribute to public policy analysis including welfare economics, theories of distributive justice, political science, and organizational theory. Using these frameworks, students will have an opportunity to analyze issues in public policy.

PLCY 760 Migration and Health (3). With a focus on Latin American migration to the U.S., this graduate-level course introduces students to the inter-relationships between migration and health. Students will gain an understanding of the theories of migration and the ways in which immigration and settlement policies influence the health of immigrants.