EXCITING NEWS!!! NEW PUBLIC HEALTH COURSE BEING OFFERED FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS. THIS SHOULD BE AN EXCELLENT COURSE FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CAREERS IN MEDICINE OR PUBLIC HEALTH. The first undergraduate public health course at Columbia, a collaboration with the Mailman School of Public Health . . . W3950- Social History of American Public Health (call #49783) Monday & Wednesday 4:10 PM- 5:25 PM Location: 503 Hamilton Hall Instructor: David K. Rosner, PhD Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of History COURSE DESCRIPTION The purpose of this course is to provide students with a historical understanding of the role public health has played in American history. The underlying assumptions are that disease, and the ways we define disease, are simultaneously reflections of social and cultural values, as well as important factors in shaping those values. Also, it is maintained that the environments that we build determine the ways we live and die. The dread infectious and acute diseases in the nineteenth century, the chronic, degenerative conditions of the twentieth and the new, vaguely understood conditions rooted in a changing chemical and human-made environment are emblematic of the societies we created. The syllabus has been constructed to focus on a few particular themes and issues. The first part of the course will focus on the changing demographics of Colonial and Early Republic America and the creation of the social and biological conditions necessary for the arrival of the nineteenth century epidemics of cholera, typhoid, yellow fever among others. The second part of the course will trace the changing urban and industrial infrastructure and their relationship to late nineteenth and early twentieth century concerns about tuberculosis, industrial illness and chronic disease. The third part of the course will trace public health practice, and public health campaigns, and the ways that social attitudes towards the industrial worker, the immigrant, African Americans, women and gays shaped the field. The last part of the course will look at the boundaries between public health and medical practice and raise questions about their shifting definitions. As topics indicate, the course will emphasize that public health is intimately related to broader social, political, as well as scientific, changes overtaking the country and will incorporate a very broad range of subjects from changes in urban living and culture, through the transformation of the industrial work place. Among the questions that will be addressed are: How does the health status of Americans reflect and shape our history? How do ideas about health reflect broader attitudes and values in American history and culture? How does the American experience with pain, disability and disease affect our actions and lives? What are the responsibilities of the state and of the individual in preserving health? How have American institutions -- from hospitals to unions to insurance companies -- been shaped by changing longevity, experience with disability and death? These questions are central to this class. By focusing on recent works on the interaction of health, politics, and ideas about gender, race, and class, the course will look at the ways social values are shaped by, and help shape, definitions of disease, ideas about prevention, and social responsibility for care for those made dependent by illness. Questions can be directed to: Ian Lapp, PhD Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Education Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University IL2011@columbia.edu