Course Description
Exploration of emerging conceptualizations and research on links between social conditions and experiences, biological characteristics and processes, and various aspects of our physical health. It introduces, explains, and assesses biologically-informed medical sociology and highlights the promise and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration between sociologists, biologists, and bench scientists.
Athena Title
Society Bodies and Health
Prerequisite
SOCI 1101 or SOCI 1101H or SOCI 3100 or permission of department
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course allows those with no background in biology, cell biology, or biochemistry an opportunity to take part in a “learning community” focused on a recent revolution in medical sociology. Traditionally, medical sociologists have explored and documented the many ways social conditions and experiences influence physical and mental health. Only infrequently did sociological research explore the biological mechanisms or pathways through which social factors operated. This course considers the movement to include biology and biomarkers in the conceptualizations and research of medical sociologists. It covers a range of topics relating to health outcomes – including social stress, social relationships, social support, and resilience process – and key biological constructs – including inflammation, biological aging, epigenetic, telomere shortening, and allostatic load. Participating students should gain by the end of the course sufficient familiarity with the material to intelligently consume, critique, and contribute in various ways to this increasing body of knowledge. This should position them to more effectively participate in research teams studying social context, family, neighborhoods, and social stress as these related to physical health, mental health, substance use, and aging, or to work on projects that examine social effects on health and aging, inflammation, epigenetic, telomere shortening, allostatic load, or related biological constructs. Students will be asked to demonstrate their mastery of the course content in written work that is appropriate for an academic context.
Topical Outline
Section 1: Theoretical Background for Linking Social Processes and Physical Health 1. Life course and life history theory 2. Social mobility model 3. Cumulative stress model 4. John-Henryism hypothesis an coping strategies 5. Biological embedding hypothesis Section 2: Putting the Concept of Biological Embedding in Sociological Perspective 6. Social foundations of biomarkers: What are biomarkers? Why are biomarkers important for sociologists? How can biomarkers be incorporated into sociological models? 7. Social foundations of systemic inflammation: What is inflammation? How does inflammation fit with sociological theories? 8. Social foundations of biological aging: What is a biological (epigenetic) clock? How can we measure this clock?
Syllabus
Public CV