The Past in the Present: Race and Racism in Science and Health

MED-SCI 309QC Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course will introduce students to the historical context that has shaped and continues to shape contemporary health disparities in the United States. Scientific, medical and public health theory and practices emerged in the racialized society of the United States in the 18th century and have persisted from the past into the present day. The overarching goal of the course is to provide foundational language, historical context, and analytical skills to support students’ ability to rigorously identify and address race-based health disparities that are so evident in biomedical research, public health, and medicine today. 

The goals of the course are to prepare students to: 

·Describe the concept of race and how the scientific/health fields have contributed to its construction 

· Describe the impacts of structural racism on the production of health disparities 

· Describe how race as a population descriptor has been used in medicine and research in the past and the present 

· Analyze how inaccurate assumptions about the biological basis of race can lead to research design and interpretation that lacks rigor and reproducibility and creates or perpetuates racial health inequities 

· Critically evaluate the specific ways your own field/discipline contributes to these inequities 

· Identify principles for designing rigorous, reproducible research that does not perpetuate racial health inequities