Taught By:
Lisa Miller
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology/ Public Health
Eckerd College
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
As the Director of the new Public Health program at Eckerd College, I am interested in learning more about how my students can work to build long-lasting change that will promote positive health outcomes for domestic and global populations. Currently, my students are required to write a policy proposal in my Foundations of Public Health course, and I often feel that I am missing key information about political and democratic processes that would equip them with the skills needed to move forward in engaging in direct action after finishing their proposal. Further, I regularly teach introduction to sociology, and students are often eager to learn more about how they can implement social change surrounding the social problems we address in class. Thus, it is my belief that students in a wide variety of my classes would benefit from my participation in the workshop.
In addition, I am also interested in developing a social action and public policy course for our new Public Health minor, and the workshop will allow me to explore that possibility further.
Finally, I currently serve as the First Year Experience Director at my institution, which is a part-time administrative role. I supervise close to 50 faculty every year, who teach a general education course for first years that focuses on the liberal arts. A major goal of that course is to inspire students to be more engaged citizens in democratic societies. It is my belief that the knowledge I gain from this workshop can be shared with the other faculty at Eckerd, who would benefit from a solutions-based approach to teaching about social and political crises in the general education classroom.
Campaigns:
Course Description:
The course introduces students to the principles, theories, tools, and practices of public health. Relying primarily on data from the behavioral sciences, students will explore societal efforts that can be taken to prevent illness, promote well-being, and prolong life. The course will broadly focus on how social, political, and economic structures shape human health related outcomes (e.g., rates of illness, healthcare access, life expectancy). We will move beyond an individualistic perspective on health, which often assumes that medical care alone can solve major health problems. Students will also consider a social determinants of health perspective, as we investigate how where people are born, work, live, and age shapes human health outcomes. We will ask how public health practitioners and researchers can work to better protect vulnerable groups who are more susceptible to falling ill and living a shorter life. Finally, we will examine the future of public health—investigating how science, public policy, and educational efforts can promote healthier communities.
Syllabus:
