Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to Global Health. While there has been considerable discussion of climate change’s impact on human health, especially in the public health literature, little attention has been paid to its significance for health inequity across and within countries and regions. Informed by environmental sociology theories, this course explores how different economic processes, governance models, and lifestyles that fuel the climate crisis ––but are taken for granted– are the root causes of climate change’s effects on health but also shape how people imagine and propose solutions. This course provides an introduction to the fields of global health and climate change and critically assess dominant framings of the climate-health nexus and ways to address it.

This course provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts, theories and methods of sociology. Towards this end, students will employ sociological analysis, drawing from classical and contemporary theory, to understand the social construction and hierarchies of race, class, gender, and sexuality as well as specific public issues, such as global inequality and immigration. Students will look beyond individualistic explanations to the larger social, political, and historical contexts that shape social outcomes.