This course presents the origins, core concepts, and impacts of the environmental justice movement by examining how race and class interact to produce or sustain health inequities. Students will examine how environmental injustices occur through structural and community factors, consequences to health, and responses to environmental injustice.
Winter 2025 or Winter 2026
Social action has not been as encouraged in my field of public health compared to the fields of environmental sustainability and public policy. That’s a detriment to our graduates and the communities they serve. I see social action as a necessary skill to equip public health practitioners to advance health needs and reduce health disparities, particularly in a political system that has built in biases and injustice. Attending this workshop is a great opportunity for me to learn best practices and tools for guiding students in successful social action campaigns within my semester-long course that will hopefully impact them throughout their lives.
Social action is already a component of my courses, but I would like to weave it more thoroughly throughout the semester. In my environmental justice course, students develop power maps and advocacy letters targeted to specific decision-makers in response to an environmental injustice issue. In my environmental health course, students have the option to develop a "public comment" in response to open calls for new governmental rules and regulations (among a set of assignment options). In these assignments and other case studies, we discuss and work on what social action can look like, but we do not put it into practice--something I would like to change.
My environmental justice students often focus on a myriad of local issues such as air pollution and asthma in metro-Detroit; urban heat risks; and food justice, treaty rights, and mercury exposure from fish consumption for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Other students focus on national and international issues, including the historical legacy of redlining policies on modern air pollution, Cancer Alley in southern Louisiana, the “toxic donut” in Chicago, and illegal gold mining’s impact on the Indigenous Yanomamo peoples of the Amazon.
Email invitation
Associate Professor
- Social action in public health - Environmental sustainability - Policy change strategies - Advocacy campaigns - Environmental justice issues - Health disparities - Community engagement
A course on social action for health and sustainability will be taught by Mozhgon Rajaee at Oakland University, focusing on equipping public health practitioners with social action skills to address health disparities. The course will explore strategies for policy change and engage students in campaigns related to environmental justice and public health issues, emphasizing practical application of social action concepts.
- Course: Social Action for Health & Sustainability - Instructor: Mozhgon Rajaee, Associate Professor, Public & Environmental Wellness, Oakland University - Focus on social action in public health - Course explores strategies for policy change - Students implement social action campaigns - Engagement with local and national issues (e.g., air pollution, food justice) - Course scheduled for Winter 2025 or 2026 - Approved status, existing course
Michigan