Module description
This module is an advanced exploration of the vital topic of racism and health. It draws together interdisciplinary scholarship drawn primarily from social sciences (such as sociology and anthropology), in conversation both with humanities scholarship (in fields such as history and cultural studies) and bioscience scholarship (in fields such as medicine and epidemiology). The module provides students with both the information and analytical tools to grapple with the intersections of racial inequality and health inequality.
Assessment details
- 1 x 1,000 Word Critical Analysis (30%)
- 1 x 2,000 Word Final Essay (70%)
Educational aims & objectives
In the US, UK and elsewhere, the Covid-19 pandemic has initiated a renewed focus on the relationship between racism and health. In the UK, official figures show that Black people are 1.9 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. From HIV/AIDS and cancer to prenatal care, research also shows that Black, indigenous and people of colour in North America are also less likely to receive correct treatment once diagnosed. Such patterns highlight the long-standing health inequalities faced by racialized groups. In the 18th and 19th centuries, non-white populations were seen as biologically different which was used to justify forms of discrimination and colonization. In the 20th century, the formalisation of medicine was often accompanied by the systemic mistreatment of groups, for example with Black Americans not being informed of the true nature of some medical experiments they were subject to. Today, medical algorithms are accused of racism and systemic social and economic inequalities continue to create bad health outcomes.
Against this pressing background of health inequities, this module explores intersections of racism and health. It draws on anthropology, history, sociology, and science and technology studies to introduce students to the analysis of health through a critical race lens. The topics covered in the module are designed to help students learn to apply critical race analysis to a range of health research and health care settings.
The module aims to support and enable students to:
- Explore and deepen their knowledge and understanding of key concepts, theories and debates relating to race and racisms and how these can be applied to understand a variety of case study examples in different national settings
- Describe and examine race and racialization as a constitutive process which effects health and health outcomes
- Apply foundational concepts that social scientists, cultural analysts, and epidemiologists use to analyse racism and health
- Be able to articulate both historical and contemporary ways in which racism and health has been framed and challenged
- Demonstrate understandings of the intersections of racism with other structures of inequality that impact health, including class, gender, and citizenship status
- Develop critical theoretical and analytic skills that can be applied to investigate the relationship between racism and health
Learning outcomes
At the end of this module, the student will have;
- good understanding of the foundational concepts that social scientists, cultural analysts, and epidemiologists use to analyse racism and health
- familiarity with both the historical and contemporary ways in which racism and health has been framed and challenged
- ability to articulate intersections of racism with other structures of inequality that impact health, including class, gender, and citizenship status
- ability to see connections between racism and health and racism in other domains of experience
Teaching pattern
One weekly two hour lecture.