Sociology 475:

Health and Society

Spring 2016
Class location: 107 Berkey Hall
Class time: TR 10:20 11:40 am
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Carrera
E-mail: jcarrera@msu.edu
Phone: 517-353-8124
Office: 417A Berkey Hall, 509 E. Circle Drive
Office hours: Wednesdays 1:30 2:30 pm and Thursdays 9:00 10:00 am
Course Description
This course critically examines health, illness, and medicine from a social science
perspective to gain an in-depth understanding of how the three are social
processes, how health and illness are distributed in society, as well as how social
structures and processes influence the onset or diagnosing of particular health
issues. Using a combination of lecture and discussion, we will engage with
sociological theories about health and medicine; the distribution of health and
illness across race, gender, and class groups; social processes in medicine and
healthcare; and global health.
Email Communication
You may email with questions about class material or to set up an appointment to
meet to discuss any issues you may be having. Emails should be addressed to
Professor Carrera or Dr. Carrera and not to hey. Professional communication
conveys respect for the person you are speaking with, the subject you are
discussing, and for yourself. Write emails using standard punctuation,
capitalization, spelling and grammar and not text speak. Due to FERPA regulations,
no information will be provided to anyone other than the student (e.g. parents)
about course enrollment or progress.
Required Materials
There are no required books for this class. Readings will be posted on the D2L page
for this course (https://d2l.msu.edu). Readings should be completed prior to class
meetings.
Class Readings
This course is aimed to assist you in developing and applying critical thinking skills.
In order to do so, you must complete all assigned readings. Participation will be
evaluated in part by your comprehension of the reading materials prior to coming to
class. You must have completed the readings in order to fully engage in lectures
and discussions. Coming prepared to class will not only help you to learn the course
material but it will allow class discussions to be productive, lively, and engaging.
Reading Quizzes

To assess participation and preparation, unannounced reading quizzes will be given.

Quizzes will take place at the beginning of class in the first ten minutes. As these
quizzes assess your preparation for, participation and attendance in class, no
makeup quizzes will be given for students who are late or absent from class.
Course Expectations
This course is tailored to challenge your thinking and help you develop critical
thinking skills. Discussion will constitute a large portion of our class sessions. Some
ground rules will help us facilitate meaningful, thought-provoking discussions:

Participate to the fullest of your ability. Ask questions, pose challenges,

suggest applications.
If you feel discomfort, express it. We have all learned to think while wearing
specific lenses and recognizing that we are wearing them is a challenge in
itself. Learning to take them off and put them on when you wish to wear
them is a skill that takes practice.
Your background may not be in the social sciences and many students in the
class will be outside of sociology. This is a resource to be taken advantage of.
Each discipline has its own lens that it has equipped you with which both
limits your gaze as well as gives you particular insight. Offer your insights
from your personal as well as disciplinary perspectives and the class
experience will only be richer.
Listen actively to other participants in class. Understand that your knowledge
does come from a particular location and others have different experiences
and skills. Their insights may be different and even directly challenge yours
but contradictions do not always mean one perspective is right and the other
wrong. Remember the fable of the blind men and the elephant.
If you find certain readings or topics challenging, do not be afraid to say you
do not understand something. It is likely that some of your peers have
struggled with the same issue.
Question ideas, concepts, and theories to come to deeper understandings of
social issues. In particular, reflect on where your own knowledge comes
from.
Everyone in class is expected to be respectful and to enter discussions with
the intention only of learning and stimulating conversations. Verbal attacks,
belittling, or bullying will not be tolerated.
Students are expected to come to class each meeting, arrive on time and
stay for the duration of the class meeting.

You should expect me, as the instructor, to come prepared to class, share
information in a clear manner, ensure the classroom is an open setting for all of us
to be free to respectfully acknowledge and express our experiences, provide you
with opportunities to meet outside of class, stimulate creative thought, facilitate
discussions, evaluate your progress, provide useful feedback, and return your work
in a timely manner.
As a student in this course, you have the responsibility to come prepared to class,
ask questions, participate in discussions, think critically, be respectful of others in

the classroom, complete your assignments on time, and to contact me if you have
any concerns about class meetings or materials. If you encounter difficulties during
the semester, please be proactive in contacting me. It is easier to handle issues
earlier rather than later.

Assignments and Grading

Your final grade in this class is based on a number of activities you will complete
throughout the semester. They include:
1. Participation/Attendance/Reading Quizzes (10%)
Come to class having completed all of the reading. A light review of all
30 pages is better than an in depth reading of 5 pages.
Participate in class discussions and lectures by asking questions,
posing challenges, and applying the course concepts to your
observations and experiences.
Reading quizzes will be at the beginning of class in the first ten
minutes.
There will be no extra time given for quizzes for students that arrive
late.
No makeup quizzes will be allowed.
1. Leading Discussion (5%)
Each student will be responsible for leading discussion twice during the
semester. On a day for leading discussion, the student will submit a
typed, brief summary of 3-5 important points from the reading(s) along
with 5-10 questions to stimulate discussion.
Sign up for days to lead discussion in the first week of classes.
2. Writing Assignments (15% each)
Papers should be a minimum of 5 full pages, meaning it spills over onto
a 6th page.
Papers are expected to be between 5-8 pages.
Less than 5 full pages will have a deduction of 10% per missing page.
A paper that is 4 pages will automatically lose 10% for not meeting
the minimum page requirement.
All papers should be in 11pt Calibri font with 1 inch margins, double
spaced. Do NOT adjust text spacing, margin spacing, or line spacing.
While you think these changes are subtle and not noticeable, they are
GLARING when held up side by side with the other papers from your
peers that did not make changes. Adjustments to the formatting
requirement will lose 2.5% for each modification.
3. Midterm Exam (20%)
This is an in-class exam on March 3rd.
It will be an essay exam.
4. Final

Exam (20%)
This is a take-home essay exam.
It will be due Thursday, May 5th by noon.
This exam will be submitted online via D2L and will be check for
plagiarism through TurnItIn.

Grade Distribution
The final grade calculation will be translated into the 4.0 grade point scale:
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.0

90.0% and higher

85.0%-89.9%
80.0%-84.9%
75.0%-79.9%
70.0%-74.9%
65.0%-69.9%
60.0%-64.9%
59.9% and lower

Submitting Assignments
Unless otherwise specified, assignments should be typed, stapled and submitted in
class on the day they are due. Assignments handed in without a staple will be
deducted 2%. For every day a written assignment is late, there will be a 10%
deduction from the grade of that assignment (i.e., 1 day late = -10%; 2 days late =
-20%; 3 days late = -30%). Assignments more than three days late will not be
accepted and will be recorded as a grade of 0.
Academic Integrity
Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that [t]he student shares with
the faculty the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and
professional standards. In addition, the Department of Sociology adheres to the
policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0,
Protection of Scholarship and Grades; the all-University Policy on Integrity of
Scholarship and Grades; and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations. Therefore, unless
authorized by your instructor, you are expected to complete all course assignments
without assistance from any source and without plagiarism from any source. You
are expected to develop original work for this course; therefore, you may not submit
course work you completed for another course to satisfy the requirements for this
course. You are not authorized to use the www.allmsu.com website to complete any
work in this course. Students who violate MSU academic integrity rules may receive
a penalty to their grade, including a failing grade on the assignment or in the
course. Contact the instructor if you are unsure about the appropriateness of your
work. Additionally, commercialization of lecture notes and university-provided
course materials is not permitted in this course.
Technology
No technology (cell phones, head phone, tablets, laptops, etc.) will be allowed
during quizzes, discussion, or lectures without special permission. Students with
disabilities may request an exception by contacting the Resource Center for Persons
with Disabilities and providing a Verified Individual Services Accommodation
(VISA) form. Cell phones and head phones may never be used in class.
Students with Disabilities
Michigan State University is committed to providing equal opportunity for
participation in all programs, services, and activities. Requests for accommodations
by persons with disabilities may be made by contacting the Resource Center for

Persons with Disabilities at 517-884-RCPD or on the web at rcpd.msu.edu. Once

your eligibility for an accommodation has been determined, you will be issued a
Verified Individual Services Accommodation (VISA) form. Please present this form
to the professor at the start of the term and/or two weeks prior to the
accommodation date.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Historic Illness Framing Due February 11th

Many readings throughout this course frame disease as being culturally

constructed or socially produced. Regardless of the biophysical experience,
culture influences how we interpret and make meaning related to illness and
wellbeing. We are taught to understand certain clusters of experiences as a
specific condition whereas in other contexts those experiences may be
viewed as entirely distinct or related in different ways.
Choose an example of a condition that previously was recognized as a
disease or illness in the United States but which is no longer considered to be
so. Some examples of such conditions are homosexuality, masturbation,
hysteria, drapetomania, just to name a few.
Research and describe the context of the illness experience as it was for
people during the time that it was recognized as an abnormality.
Analyze why this condition is no longer considered to be an illness.
Papers must cite at least five outside sources. Proper ASA citation style
should be used. You may cite class readings in addition to outside sources.
Submit this paper through D2L for review via TurnItIn by 10:20 am Thursday,
February 11th.

2. Personal Health and Structure Due March 17th

We live in a society that wants to believe that individuals are solely
responsible for their life outcomes. This assignment asks you to think about
the underlying structures that have shaped your own health experiences.
Part 1
o Take five pictures that represent health experience in your life.
o Try to get multiple images that reflect a single health concept/condition
so that you can tell a cohesive story about them. These images may
be of your own personal health or those immediately close to you
(immediate family or very close friendsi.e. those you would spend
the holidays with). When including people in your pictures, make sure
you get their permission to take their picture and inform them that the
images will be submitted with your assignment. Do not take pictures of
illegal activities.
o Include your images as an appendix at the end of your paper.
Part 2
o Describe the collection of images and the one or two ideas you are
trying to share with these images.
o Reflect on the social experiences and structures in place that have led
to the health outcomes that you depict in the images.

o
o

Use your sociological imagination to describe how this health context

came about.
Think critically about what has allowed, facilitated, or caused the
health outcomes you are sharing.
You MAY NOT simply describe these processes in terms of
individual behaviors and choices.
You MUST think more deeply about what conditions/structures
are in place to allow those choices to be made and actions to be
taken.

Submit the paper through D2L for review via TurnItIn by 10:20 am Thursday,
March 17th.
3. Environmental Health in Michigan Due April 28th
Choose an environmental health topic to research in Michigan. Examples of
possible topics could be lead exposures in Flint, the Dow Chemical superfund
site on the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers, air quality in the Delray
neighborhood in Detroit and the Marathon Oil Refinery, air quality and the
Detroit Waste Incinerator, air and water contamination around the Detroit
Wastewater Treatment Plant, mercury contamination and coal fired power
plants in Michigan, hydraulic fracturing in Michigan, endocrine disruptors and
cancer in Michigan, among many others.
Identify the problem you are studying, the source and extent of the source of
the problem in the state, and what populations are impacted (specific groups,
numbers, geographic distribution).
o What are the specific chemicals/contaminants of concern (mercury,
arsenic, lead, benzene, e. coli, helminths, etc.)?
o How do those contaminants move through the environment (soil,
water, air, via vectors (e.g. mosquitos, snails))?
o What are routes of exposure for humans (e.g. ingestion, dermal,
lungs)?
Describe the associated known or suspected health impacts of this problem
for different life course stages (adults, children, pregnant women, immune
compromised, etc).
How does the impacted geographic region you are focusing on compare
(neighborhood vs rest of Detroit, Detroit or Flint vs other cities in the state,
Michigan vs nationally)?
Using course materials and supplementary readings analyze the processes
that have led to the development of this problem in Michigan.
o What public policies have facilitated the development of this problem?
o What efforts can be made to reduce exposures?

Submit this paper through D2L for review via TurnItIn by 10:20 am Thursday,
April 28th.

Course Schedule
Note: Readings are tentative and subject to change by the instructor, with
appropriate notice.
Week 1: Introduction and Overview of the Social Determinants of Health
Tuesday, January 12th
Syllabus
What is health? How is health social?
Readings: None
Thursday, January 14th
Readings:
1. Phelan, Jo C., Bruce G. Link, and Parisa Tehranifar. 2010. Social Conditions
as Fundamental Causes of Health Inequalities: Theory, Evidence, and Policy
Implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51(S): S28-S40.
2. Braveman, Paula A., Susan A. Egerter, and Robin E. Mockenhaupt. 2011.
Broadening the Focus: The Need to Address the Social Determinants of
Health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 40(1S1):S4-S18.
Week 2: Social Theory
Tuesday, January 19th
Readings:
1. Cockerham, William. 2001. Medical Sociology and Sociological Theory. Ch.
1 (pp. 3-22) in The Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Thursday, January 21st
Readings: Cockerham continued
Week 3: Social Inequalities - Race
Tuesday, January 26th
Readings:
1. Haney-Lopez, Social Construction of Race. Pg 191-203.
2. Feagin, Joe and Zinobia Bennefield. 2014. Systematic racism and U.S. health
care. Social Science & Medicine 103:7-14.
3. Smedley, Brian D. 2012. The Lived Experience of Race and Its Health
Consequences. American Journal of Public Health 102: 933-935.
Thursday, January 28th
Readings:
1. Murray, Christopher J.L., Sandeep C. Kulkarni, Catherine Michaud, Niels
Tomijima, Maria T. Bulzacchelli, Terrell J. Iandiorio, and Majid Ezzati. 2006.
Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties,
and Race-Counties in the United States. PLOS Medicine 3(9): 1513-1524.
2. Goyal, Monika, Nathan Kupperman, Sean D. Cleary, Stephen J. Teach, and
James M. Chamberlain. 2015. Racial Disparities in Pain Management of

Children with Appendicitis in Emergency Departments. JAMA Pediatrics

169(11): 996-1002.
Week 4: Social Inequalities - Gender
Tuesday, February 2nd
Readings:
1. Read, Jennan Ghazal and Bridget K. Gorman. 2011. Gender and Health
Revisited. Ch. 21 (pp. 411-430) in Handbook of the Sociology of Health,
Illness, and Healing: A Blueprint for the 21st Century (Bernice A. Pescosolido,
Jack K. Martin, Jane D. McLeod, and Anne Rogers, eds.). New York: Springer.
Thursday, February 4th
Readings:
1. Fisher, Jill A. and Lorna M. Ronald. 2010. Sex, Gender, and Pharmaceutical
Politics: From Drug Development to Marketing. Gender Medicine 7(4):357370.
Week 5: Social Inequalities - Class
Tuesday, February 9th
Readings:
1. Muntaner, Carles, Edwin Ng, Christophe Vanroelen, Sharon Christ, and William
W. Eaton. Social Stratification, Social Closure, and Social Class as
Determinants of Mental Health Disparities. Pp. 205-228 in Handbook of
Sociology of Mental Health. New York: Springer.
Thursday, February 11th
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE: HISTORIC ILLNESS FRAMING
Readings:
1. Braveman, Paula A., Catherine Cubbin, Susan Egerter, David R. Williams, and
Elsie Pamuk. 2009. Socioeconomic Disparities in Health in the United
States: What the Patterns Tell Us. American Journal of Public Health 100(S1):
S186-S196.
Week 6: Social Structure of Medicine
Tuesday, February 16th
Readings:
1. Waitzkin, Howard. 1991. Introduction: How Patients and Doctors Deal with
Social Problems. Ch 1 (pp. 3-10) in The Politics of Medical Encounters: How
Patients and Doctors Deal with Social Problems. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Thursday, February 18th
Readings:
1. Good, Byron. 1994. How medicine constructs its objects. Ch 3 (pp. 65-87
in Medicine, rationality, and experience: An anthropological perspective. New
York: Cambridge University Press.

2. Berg, Marc and Geoffrey Bowker. 1997. The Multiple Bodies of the Medical
Record: Toward a Sociology of an Artifact. The Sociological Quarterly
38(3):513-537.

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Week 7: Illness and the Individual

Tuesday, February 23rd
Readings:
1. Kleinman, Arthur. 1988. The Meaning of Symptoms and Disorders. Ch. 1
(Pp. 3-30) in The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human
Condition. Basic Books.
Thursday, February 25th
Readings:
1. Parsons, Talcott. 1975. The Sick Role and the Role of the Physician
Reconsidered. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society.
53(3):257-278.
Week 8: Midterm
Tuesday, March 1st
Review for Midterm Exam
Readings: None
Thursday, March 3rd
MIDTERM EXAM
Readings: None
-- Spring Break -- No Class -Week 9: Health Care Systems
Tuesday, March 15th
Readings:
1. Blumenthal, David and Sara R. Collins. 2014. Health Care Coverage under
the Affordable Care Act A Progress Report. The New England Journal of
Medicine 371(3): 275-281.
2. Gruber, Jonathan. 2011. The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act: How
Reasonable Are the Projections? NBER Working Paper 17168. Cambridge,
MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Thursday, March 17th
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE: PERSONAL HEALTH AND STRUCTURE
Readings:
1. Davis, Karen, Kristof Stremikis, David Squires, and Cathy Schoen. 2014.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care
System Compares Internationally. The Commonwealth Fund. Pp. 1-31.
Week 10: Pharmaceuticals
Tuesday, March 22nd
Readings:
1. Busfield, Joan. 2006. Pills, Power, People: Sociological Understandings of
the Pharmaceutical Industry. Sociology 40(2): 297-314.

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Thursday, March 24th

Readings:
1. Pollock, Anne. 2014. Places of pharmaceutical knowledge-making: Global
health, postcolonial science, and hope in South African drug discovery.
Social Studies of Science 44(6): 848-873.
2. Ecks, Stefan. 2008. Global Pharmaceutical Markets and Corporate
Citizenship: The Case of Novartis Anti-cancer Drug Glivec. BioSocieties
3:165-181.
Week 11: Clinical Trials
Tuesday, March 29th
Readings:
1. Lakoff, Andrew. 2007. The Right Patients for the Drug: Managing the
Placebo Effect in Antidepressant Trials. BioSocieties 2:57-71.
2. Fisher, Jill A. 2007. Ready-to-Recruit or Ready-to-Consent Populations?
Informed Consent and the Limits of Subject Autonomy. Qualitative Inquiry
13(6): 875-894.
Thursday, March 31st
Readings:
1. Lock, Margaret and Vinh-Kim Nguyen. Globalizing Clinical Research. Pp.
188-192 in Anthropology of Biomedicine.
2. Petryna, Adriana. 2007. Clinical Trials Offshored: On Private Sector Science
and Public Health. BioSocieties 2:21-40.
Week 12: Mental Health
Tuesday, April 5th
Readings:
1. Kleinman, Arthur. What is a Psychiatric Diagnosis? Pp. 5-17 in Rethinking
Psychiatry. New York: Free Press.
2. Szasz, Thomas. 1960. The Myth of Mental Illness. The American
Psychologist 15(2):113-118.
Thursday, April 7th
Readings:
1. Kleinman, Arthur. Do Psychiatric Disorders Differ in Different Cultures? The
Findings. Pp. 34-52 in Rethinking Psychiatry. New York: Free Press.
Week 13: Health and Politics
Tuesday, April 12th
Readings:
1. Brandt, Allan M. 1978. Racism and Research: The case of the Tuskegee
Syphilis study. The Hastings Center Report 8(6): 21-29.
Thursday, April 14th
Readings:

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1. Metzl, Jonathan. 2011. Preface. In Protest Psychosis. Boston, Beacon Press.

p ix-xxi.
2. Metzl, Jonathan. 2011. Chapter 7: Categories. In Protest Psychosis. Boston,
Beacon Press. p 56-69.
Week 14: Environmental Health
Tuesday, April 19th
Readings:
1. Colborn, Theo and Dianne Dumanoski. 1997. A Single Hit. In Our Stolen
Future. New York, Plume. p 110-121.
2. Langston, Nancy. 2010. Chapter 1: Disrupting Hormone Signals. In Toxic
Bodies. New Haven, Yale University Press. p 1-16.
Thursday, April 21st
Readings:
1. Fendall, Lisa S. and Mary A. Sewell. 2009. Contributing to marine pollution by
washing your face: Microplastics in facial cleansers. Marine Pollution Bulletin,
58: 12251228.
2. Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne, Richard C. Thompson, David C. Aldridge.
Microplastics in freshwater systems: A review of the emerging threats,
identification of knowledge gaps and prioritisation of research needs. Water
Research, 75: 63-82.
3. Vandermeersch, Griet et al. 2015. Environmental contaminants of emerging
concern in seafood European database on contaminant levels.
Environmental Research, 143: 29-45.
Week 15: Health Activism
Tuesday, April 26th
Readings:
1. Brown, Phil, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Stephen Zavestoski, Laura Senier,
Rebecca Gasior Altman, Elizabeth Hoover, Sabrina McCormick, Brian Mayer,
and Crystal Adams. 2011. Health Social Movements: Advancing Traditional
Medical Sociology Concepts. Ch. 7 (pp. 117-138) in Handbook of the
Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing: A Blueprint for the 21st Century
(Bernice A. Pescosolido, Jack K. Martin, Jane D. McLeod, and Anne Rogers,
eds.). New York: Springer.
Thursday, April 28th
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN MICHIGAN
Readings:
1. Klawiter, Maren. 1999. Racing for the Cure, Walking Women, and Toxic
Touring: Mapping Cultures of Action within the Bay Area Terrain of Breast
Cancer. Social Problems 46(1): 104-126.
THURSDAY, MAY 5th FINAL EXAM DUE

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