Courses Taught at Brandeis University

Video: Sociology at Brandeis University

SOC 84a - Health, Community, and Society

Reviews sociological theories of medicine as an institution of social control. Explores the relationships between social inequalities and health disparities. Examines how race and gender ideologies are embedded in medical and public health practice and knowledge production.

SOC 187a - Race, Health and Medicine in the African Diaspora

Offers critical perspectives on race, medicine, health, and illness in the African Diaspora. Specifically, we explore how intertwining ideologies of race and gender have contributed to the (mis)management of illness and health in populations of African descent from the periods of slavery and colonization until the present day.

SOC 133b - Sociology of Reproduction

Explores reproduction as a social and biological set of meanings and processes through which racial, national, gender, and socio-economic inequalities have been amplified, reconfigured and contested across time and place. It locates individual reproductive experiences and outcomes in regional, national and global contexts.

SOC 203b - Field Methods

Provides an introduction to the methodology of sociological field research in the Chicago School tradition. Readings include theoretical statements, completed studies, and experiential accounts of researchers in the field. Includes exercises in specific methods and procedures of data collection and analysis. Each student will design and conduct his/her own independent research project.

SOC 217a - Sociology of Health and Illness

Provides a selective overview of theories and topics in medical sociology. Although the primary focus will be on medicine, health, and illness in the US, the course will also address global health as a field of sociological study.