TEACHING
Here are a few examples of my undergraduate and graduate teaching. All courses are undergraduate unless marked otherwise.
Intro to Public Health
Public health examines why people get sick, what helps them stay healthy, and the types of interventions and policies needed to ensure the health of individuals at a societal level. This course introduces you to the principles, tools, and approaches to health utilized in the discipline of public health.
Health Policy
This course presents an introduction to heath policy: exploring the role of the government in shaping health and healthcare provision, the nature of healthcare policies in the United States, and the impact these policies have on individual lives.
Ethnicity, Health and Social Justice
The global pandemic (COVID-19) and the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement have have shed critical light on racial and ethnic disparities that pervade all aspects of social life. In this course, we unpack these disparities within the context of health and illness. We explore racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States—analyzing why and how these disparities persist. We also consider possible interventions and solutions that can create a more equitable society that will lead to the alleviation of such disparities in health.
Medical Sociology
To understand the current state of health care, we need to examine US health care as a system encompassing numerous actors, including medical professional groups, patients, lobbyists, and the government. This course seeks to provide an overview of the health care system in the United States from a sociological perspective. Some of the topics examined include racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities of health and illness, changing definitions of disease, variations in access to care, and patients' illness experiences.
Race and Ethnicity in American Life
How and why does race and ethnicity matter in daily life in the United States? This course seeks to answer this question and to explore topics of race and ethnicity in the United States from a sociological perspective. We will begin with an evaluation of the different theories of race and ethnicity present in the current scholarship. We will proceed to examine the varied experiences of racial and ethnic minorities living in the United States. We will then focus on how race and ethnicity shape different areas/aspects of North American social life. Topics include: neighborhoods, health and illness, education, employment, criminalization, and political participation.
Qualitative Methods (graduate)
This course builds on, and refines, knowledge and skills of qualitative inquiry. We examine theoretical and practical scholarship on qualitative methodologies. While special focus is placed on ethnography and interview methods, there is also exploration of other qualitative approaches, including documents, PhotoVoice, and focus groups.