An examination of a current topic relevant to health and society. The specific topic will vary from year to year. Topics may include: Social Justice and Health Activism; Climate Change and Health; Labour, Precarity, and Health.

This course will examine the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, given historic and contemporary issues. A critical examination of the social determinants of health, including the cultural, socioeconomic and political landscape, as well as the legacy of colonialism, will be emphasized. An overview of methodologies and ethical issues working with Indigenous communities in health research and developing programs and policies will be provided. The focus will be on the Canadian context, but students will be exposed to the issues of Indigenous peoples worldwide.
Same as SOCC49H3

An intensive, interdisciplinary study of the human-animal relationship as represented through a range of literature, film, and other critical writings. Students will explore the theoretical underpinnings of “animality” as a critical lens through which human identity, health, and policy are conceptualized. Key topics include: animals in the human imagination, particularly in relation to health; animal-human mythologies; health, ethics, and the animal.

An examination of a current topic relevant to the study of health and society. The specific topic will vary from year to year.

Same as SOCC51H3

An examination of a current topic in Health Humanities. The specific topic will vary from year to year.

In this course, we will examine older age from an arts-based humanistic perspective, with particular focus on the representation of older age in the arts, and the role of arts-based therapies, creative engagement, and humanities-informed research initiatives involving older people and/or the aging process.

This course introduces students to the practice of arts-based health research (ABHR), which involves the formal integration of creative art forms into health research methods and outcomes. Students will learn about the conceptual foundations of ABHR and explore various methods for generating, interpreting and representing health-related research (e.g., narrative, performance, visual arts, digital storytelling, or body mapping). With reference to concrete exemplars and experiential learning in creative forms, students will examine critical issues of methodological quality, evidence, research ethics, implementation challenges, and opportunities for arts-based health research in Canada and the global context.

For close to a century, comics as a medium have examined diverse topics, from the serious to the silly. Drawing Illness draws on interdisciplinary scholarship from disability studies, comics studies, comic histories, medical anthropology, history of medicine and public health to examine the ways in which graphic narratives have been utilized to tell a range of stories about illness, disability, grief, dying, death, and medicine.

This course introduces students to disability history, a subfield within both history and the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. Students will use critical perspectives from disability studies to interpret how the concept of disability has changed over time and across cultures. This course understands disability as a social and political phenomenon and seeks to understand the experiences of disabled people in the past around the world. Students enrolled in this course will read secondary and primary source texts, and draw on lectures, films, memoirs, popular culture, and art to examine the social and cultural construction and experiences of disability. Students will also gain an understanding of how historians conduct research, and the methods and problems of researching disability history. Historical themes include colonialism, industrialization, war, and bureaucracy; regions and time periods studied will be selected at the discretion of the instructor.

This course introduces students to health professions and practice with a focus on understanding the roles and responsibilities of health professionals, their scope of practices, and the key issues and challenges they face. The course will explore the evolution of healthcare delivery systems, the regulatory environment, and the ethical and professional considerations that impact the delivery of health care services through the lens of various health professions. Topics will also include the history and development of health professions and the interprofessional nature of health care delivery. The course will also examine, from the lens of various health professions, key issues and challenges facing health professionals such as health care disparities, health care reform, the use of technology, and other contemporary issues in healthcare.

Throughout the course students will engage in critical thinking, analysis, and discussion of current issues in health professions and practice. The course will also provide opportunities for students to explore potential career paths within the healthcare field and to develop skills necessary for success in health professions such as communication, teamwork and cultural competence.

This is an advanced reading course in special topics for upper level students who have completed the available basic courses in Health and Society and who wish to pursue further intensive study on a relevant topic. Topic selection and approval will depend on the supervising instructor.

Provides senior students with the opportunity to apply methodological skills to a health research problem. Students will give presentations of their research proposals, and there may be a guest seminar on health research projects.

The topics presented in this course will represent a range of contemporary issues in health research. Topics will vary by instructor and term.

Provides students with the opportunity to analyze work of health institutions. Students taking this course will arrange, in consultation with the instructor, to work as a volunteer in a health institution. They will write a major research paper related to some aspect of their experience.

How does cultural representation and social construction shape understandings of persons with chronic illness, disability and genetic difference? Engaging with history and the present cross-culturally, students learn about language and framing; lay and medical knowledge; family memory and public secrets; the professions and immigration medicine; front-line bureaucracy and public health authority; asymptomatic disease and stigmatized illness; and dual loyalty dilemmas and institutionalized medicine.

This course builds on HLTC17H3 by examining rehabilitation from the perspectives of researchers, clinicians, and clients. The course focuses on the historical role of rehabilitation, not only in improving health, but also in perpetuating the goal of 'normalcy'. Students will examine how rehabilitation impacts people, both at an individual and societal level, and explore the field of disability studies and its critical engagement with the message that disabled people “need to be repaired.”

An examination of a current health sciences topic. The specific topic will vary from year to year, and may include: clinical epidemiology, an advanced nutrition topic, or the biology and population health impacts of a specific disease or illness condition.

Reproductive health is defined by the World Health Organization as physical, mental, and social wellbeing across the life course in all domains related to the reproductive system. This course will draw on theories and methods from demography, epidemiology, medicine, and public health to examine the determinants and components of reproductive health. A particular emphasis will be placed on sexual health, family planning, preconception health, and perinatal health and on how these are understood in the context of a growing global population.

This course provides an introduction to the field of program and policy evaluation. Evaluation plays an important role in evidence based decision making in all aspects of society. Students will gain insight into the theoretical, methodological, practical, and ethical aspects of evaluation across different settings. The relative strengths and weaknesses of various designs used in applied social research to examine programs and policies will be covered.

Same as SOCD11H3

The topics presented in this course will represent a range of contemporary issues in health research. Topics will vary by instructor and term.

An examination of a current topic relevant to global health, especially diseases or conditions that predominately affect populations in low-income countries. The specific topics will vary from year to year, and may include: HIV/AIDS; insect-borne diseases; the biology of poverty and precarity. The course will provide students with relevant information about social context and health policy, but will focus on the processes of disease transmission and its biological impact on human health.

Dentistry is one of the oldest branches of medicine responsible for the treatment of diseases of oral cavity. This course will introduce students to the key concepts as well as the latest research in the dental sciences, including but not limited to craniofacial structures, bone physiology, odontogenesis, pathogenesis of oral diseases, and technology in dental sciences.

An examination of a current health topic relevant to sex, gender, and the life course. The specific topic will vary from year to year, and topics may include: reproductive health; the biology and health impacts of aging; infant feeding, weaning, and nutrition; sexual health among youth. The course will provide students with relevant information about social context and health policy, but will focus on biological processes at specific life stages.

The topics presented in this course will represent a range of contemporary issues in health research. Topics will vary by instructor and term.

The topics presented in this course will represent a range of contemporary issues in health research. Topics will vary by instructor and term.

This course will examine pandemics, epidemics, and outbreaks of contagious infectious diseases, specifically viruses (i.e. HIV, Ebola, SARS, hantavirus, smallpox, influenza) among Indigenous Peoples. Students will learn about the social, cultural, and historical impacts of the virus on Indigenous peoples and their communities with regards to transmission, treatment and prevention, public health measures and strategies, as well as ethical issues.

The didactic portion of this course will examine emerging environmental health issues using case studies. In the hands-on portion of the course, students will learn a range of research skills - how to use the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, evidence-based health and best practices, and the different elements of a successful grant proposal - while honing their researching, writing, and presenting skills.

This course will introduce students to key conceptual and methodological approaches to studying experiences of embodiment at different points in the life course. It draws on range of social and cultural perspectives on bodily activity, exercise, disability, and representations of the body to encourage students to critically examine relationships between sociocultural dynamics and health.

Food security is an important determinant of health and well being, and yet in many areas of the world there are profound challenges to achieving it. Food sovereignty – the right of peoples to self-determined food production – has an important and complex relationship with food security. This course will examine the implications of food security and food sovereignty for health equity in the context of sub Saharan Africa.

This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the role of technological and social innovations in global health. Through lectures, case studies, group projects and exciting guest lectures, students will gain an understanding of the process of developing and scaling technological and social innovations in low- and middle-income countries, taking into account the unique socio-cultural, financial and logistical constraints that are present in such settings.