This course explores international health issues using political economy as a theoretical framework. Particular attention is given to the social, economic and political factors of health, including the constructions of health definitions and the health-illness process.
Explores the changing interactions between epidemic disease, governance, and scientific knowledge since the nineteenth century. Widespread infections, pathological outbreaks, and emerging diseases are examined at the local, national, and global levels as both historical agents and as constructs.
We are a culture fascinated with the concept of “madness.” The mad person has been simultaneously represented in popular culture as genius, artistic, comedic and dangerous. There is something profoundly stable about the historical positioning of individuals identified as mentally 'disordered' at the outer boundaries of Canadian social and political life. This interdisciplinary course traces […]
Today, concepts of wellness and wellbeing prevail in both popular and medical discourses about health. But what do these concepts really mean? When, how, and why have they come to predominate so centrally in our culture, as well as various institutional settings (such as schools, workplaces, prisons)? How do these paradigms shape our understanding of […]
This course explores critical health issues in the Global South and its relationship to the political economy of development. It analyses the socio-economic systems, the morbidity-mortality patterns, the demographic and epidemiological transitions and the triple burden of health problems in developing countries. Special attention is given to the study of comparative Health Systems in Latin […]
Crosslisted: GL/PSYC 3310 An examination of data and theories relating to the psychology of adult development and aging. Major topics include biological and psychological theories of aging; age changes in intelligence, personality and social relations; pathologies of old age and methods of intervention.
Examines evidence related to the increasing incidence of poverty in Canada and the mechanisms by which poverty threatens the health of both the poor and not poor. Explores various potential policy responses.
Examines and critiques the elements and concepts of an evolving integrated health system (HIS) in Canada. The evolution and the socio-political-economic impact of this new evolving holistic and integrated health-healing model from an inter-disciplinary and cross-sectoral perspective are studied.
Examines the place of pharmaceuticals in the Canadian health care system. Focuses on conflicts among stakeholders in policy formation, costs and physician prescribing behaviour.
This course examines how different social groups discover, interpret, and use genomic information. It also considers the social and ethical impacts of related biotechnology such as Direct-to-Consumer genetic testing, CRISPR, DNA barcoding, synthetic biology, and agricultural biotechnology.