SISP 262: CULTURAL STUDIES OF HEALTH
Sociology 259
Fall 2015
Tuesdays & Thursdays 10:30-11:50am
PAC 136
Instructor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:
Phone:
Professor Anthony (Tony) Hatch
214 Allbritton (up the “Veranda”)
Thursdays 1:00-3:00pm and by appointment
ahatch@wesleyan.edu
860-685-3991
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Nothing is more fundamental to the human condition than our most basic right—the right to
healthy life. Tragically, this right is inequitably distributed across human bodies and populations,
especially along axes of race, gender, class, age, and nationality. In fact, persons residing in the
United States do not have a right to healthy life. Issues of health and illness are, quite literally,
matters of life and death that are shaped by broader political and economic institutions in human
societies. In neoliberal nation states like the United States, the guardian of the right to live a healthy
is a highly bureaucratic and technological form of corporate medicine. Medicine comprises a
network of social institutions and technoscientific practices that people have created and use to
diagnose and heal our bodily and psychic ills. While the practice of medicine has produced dramatic
improvements in life expectancy and quality of life for billions of people, most people on the planet
do not have access to basic medical care. Who thrives, who gets sick, who dies and why constitute
core questions for social justice.
This course investigates the complex embroidery of biosocial and cultural processes that shape the
unequal experiences and meanings of health. Cultural studies of health document the role of
medicine as a great instrument of power that both generates and alleviates suffering. As more and
more areas of social life and parts of bodies are falling under the control of medicine (a process
called medicalization), we must ask what are the dynamics and implications of medicalization for
human societies and cultures? Drawing on provocative readings and media from diverse fields in
sociology and cultural studies of science, technology, and medicine this course will investigate these
questions and more with an emphasis on their answers might contribute to social justice and
improve the conditions necessary for human thriving.
COURSE OBJECTIVES



Understand and utilize the core concepts and theories in cultural studies of health
Describe how human health is shaped by social, economic, and political relationships.
Demonstrate and apply knowledge of how the practice of medicine and use of medical
technologies impact human health and society.
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COURSE READINGS
Most of our course readings are available in PDF format on Moodle. The readings are organized by
week, the author’s last name, and by year of publication. A number of readings are available online
for free through Wesleyan’s library.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
This course uses both a lecture and a student directed format where we learn from and teach each
other. You will be evaluated in part on your contributions to making the class successful for yourself
and others. This is a reading intensive course where you will have to read a large quantity of
complicated and abstract material in a relatively short period of time. This is also a course that values
you as a person and respects your experience; share your brilliance and experience with everyone
else! Based on these emphases, your grade in this class is calculated out of 500 points distributed
across four elements:
Class Participation
Reading Quizzes
Weekly Reflection Papers
Final Research Paper
10 percent
20 percent
30 percent
40 percent
50 points
100 points
150 points
200 points
Class Participation (10 percent of your grade @ 50 pts)
I expect you to attend every class, on time, prepared to engage fully in your own education. This is a
dialogic course where we will engage in substantive open group discussion with daily prompting and
questioning from me. I expect for you to be an active participant in every moment of every class. If
you have a recurring conflict that interferes with your ability to be here everyday, you should
consider dropping this class. Beyond that: It’s your education. Show up for it.
I will evaluate your participation according to the following criteria.
Exemplary = up to 50 points. This means you have attended every class possible (with
reasonable exceptions for illness, athletics, verifiable emergencies, etc.), openly demonstrate
outstanding preparedness for each class, and make significant contributions to our collective
learning.
Good = up to 40 points. This means you have attended most classes, demonstrate consistent
preparation for each class, and make substantive contributions to our collective leaning.
Fair = up to 30 points. This means you have missed about 3-4 classes, are generally prepared for
each class, and make marginal contributions to our collective learning.
Poor = up to 20 points. This means you are chronically late and/or absent from class, are rarely
prepared for each class, and either make minimal contributions to our learning or take away
from our learning.
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Ten (10) Reading Quizzes (20 percent of your grade @ 100 pts)
In order to succeed in this class, it is essential that you complete the readings for each class as
indicated on the course calendar and come to class prepared to discuss what you read. Ten (10)
quizzes (10 points each) will count toward your final grade. However, we will take more than ten
quizzes—I will include your ten best scores. The quizzes are based on the readings that are due that
day as indicated on the course calendar. Quizzes will consist of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank
questions, true/false, and/or short answer questions. The best way to prepare for these quizzes is to
read everything that is assigned and take reading notes that identify key terms, shifts, and content in
the readings.
Weekly Reflection Papers (30 percent of your grade @ 150 pts)
You will write five (5) weekly reflection papers (30 points per paper) that discuss synchronies across
course readings, lectures, and discussions. Reflections are synthetic thought statements that signal
your understanding of course content by identifying and critically assessing patterns in the content,
themes, and questions that cut across our course. Your job is to write reflection papers based on
weeks you found especially compelling, problematic, or inspiring. Also, as you make decisions about
what to reflect on, consider that you will have the option of incorporating selected text from your
reflections into your final research paper. Aside from these considerations, each reflection must do
the following:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Reflect on material across any two (2) class periods
Discuss at least one (1) reading from each class period
Discuss at least one (1) of the lectures from either class period
Discuss an element of our actual in-class discussion from either class period.
Remember, you must cite specific ideas from the readings, lectures, and discussions to be
eligible for full credit. You are also invited to introduce information or insights from outside the
course materials into the reflections. Each paper needs to be 2 full pages long (double-spaced, 1-inch
margins, 12-point font) with your name, course name, response number, and the date typed in the
header space. I will deduct five (5) points for improperly formatted papers. Please include footnotes
with complete citations.
Due Dates: These papers are not due on any specific date, but they are due the class period
following the most recent class period upon which you are reflecting. Please print out and turn in
your response papers at the beginning of the class.
Final Research Paper
You will write one ten (10) page final research paper that uses at least one specific cultural theory of
health to investigate and analyze a health-related topic of your choice. Upload your completed
papers to Moodle. We will discuss the all of the instructions for the final research paper assignment
in greater detail on Tuesday, October 13 in class. Do not miss this in-class presentation!
Proposal Due Date: A one (1) page proposal for the paper is due on Tuesday, November 3 that
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informs me of your provisional thinking. This proposal is worth 25 points out of 200 for the final
research paper. I prefer clearly articulated and well conceived proposals to thin and muddled
proposals. Bring your completed proposal to class with you.
Paper Due Date: 12:00pm on Saturday, December 19th in Moodle (the day and time of the final)
GRADING SCALE
Percent
97-100
93-96
90-92
87-89
83-86
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
67-69
63-66
60-63
57-59
53-56
50-52
47-49
44-46
40-43
below 40
Points
485-500
465-484
450-464
435-449
415-434
400-414
385-399
365-384
350-364
335-349
315-334
300-314
285-299
265-284
250-264
235-249
220-234
200-219
below 200
Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF+
F
FE+
E
EF
OTHER VERY IMPORTANT COURSE INFORMATION
This course requires a high level of student preparedness and endurance. I do not expect this to be
an easy course, but I do expect it to be an engaging, enriching, and empowering one. Please review
the following information, as it is essential to your success. You are responsible for all of the
information that follows—please consult the syllabus before you email me with questions about
course policies.
HOW TO CONTACT ME
Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns about the class, but please note that I
only read and respond to student emails during normal business hours (9-5, M-F) except in rare
cases of actual emergency. Please allow 1-2 days for an email response from me for non-urgent
issues. Be sure to review the syllabus carefully before emailing me about course policies.
I would also love to see you during my office hours on Thursday 1:00-3:00pm and by appointment.
Please have respect for the fact that I’m a writer and work in my office daily. If you come to my
office unannounced, I will politely ask you to come on Thursday or to email me for an appointment.
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DISCLAIMER
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course: deviations may be necessary.
EXTRA CREDIT
I reserve the right to offer extra credit during the semester at my discretion. I also reserve the right
not to offer extra credit.
LATE WORK
WE TAKE QUIZZES WITHIN THE FIRST 10-15 MINUTES OF CLASS—YOU WILL NOT
BE ABLE TO MAKE UP QUIZZES IF YOU ARE LATE! READ THAT AGAIN.
If you have an excused absence from class when we take a quiz, you can make up your quiz during
my weekly office hours. You should not have any planned absences or any obvious scheduling
problems. I will not hunt you down asking you to make up your work—it is your responsibility to
email me to tell me when you are going to be absent (also tell me the reason for your absence).
Repeat: I am not keeping track of whether or not you missed your work.
You will not be able to make up weekly reflections. I retain the right to offer and/or deny make-ups
based on my assessment of your situation and any relevant documentation.
USING MOODLE
Many of the required PDF readings for this course will be posted in Moodle. I will also make use of
the “News” feature to communicate with the entire class. It is your responsibility to monitor Moodle on a
daily basis for any announcements!
TECHNOLOGY USE IN CLASS
You are NOT permitted to use laptops, smart phones, or tablets during class without explicit
permission from me. Explicit permission from me looks like you signing a written pledge to only use
note-taking applications on a laptop or tablet. We are in class for 1 hour and 20 minutes each day—
this is exceptionally valuable time in our lives and I’d rather not waste it with you being in two or
more digital “places” while you are with us. Using devices during class is disruptive to the class and
disrespectful to me personally. Be digitally unavailable to your people during class time (that’s what I
do). Be on notice: I favor public humiliation if you violate this ethic. However, if you must make or
take an EMERGENCY phone call during class, please step outside to do so.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY IS SERIOUS
I treat all forms of academic honesty with the utmost seriousness and strongly encourage you to
comply with Wesleyan’s Honor Code which you can review within the student handbook
(http://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/studenthandbook/20152016studenthandbook.pdf)
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Violations of the Honor Code may result in an F in the course and possible academic and
disciplinary action. All violations will be reported without exception.
DISABILITY RESOURCES
Wesleyan University is committed to ensuring that all qualified students with disabilities are afforded
an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from its programs and services. To receive
accommodations, a student must have a documented disability as defined by Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and provide documentation of
the disability. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided
retroactively, please contact Disability Resources as soon as possible. If you believe that you might
need accommodations for a disability, please contact Dean Patey in Disability Resources, located in
North College, Room 021, or call 860/685-5581 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the
process for requesting accommodations.
COURSE EVALUATION
Your honest and constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping the
future of education at Wesleyan and my prospects for future employment here (for real). Upon
completing this course, please take time to fill out the online course evaluation.
COURSE CALENDAR
1. Tuesday, September 8: Introduction and Syllabus
Part I: Framing Contexts and Institutions
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2. Thursday, September 10: Health System of a Down
T.R. Reid. 2009. “The Paradox,” pp. 28-45 in The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better,
Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. New York: The Penguin Press.
Paul Starr. 1982. “The Coming of the Corporation,” pp. 420-449 in The Social Transformation of
American Medicine. New York: Basic Books.
3. Tuesday, September 15: Defining Cultural Studies
Stuart Hall. 2013. “The Work of Representation,” pp. 1-47 in Representation (2nd edition), Stuart Hall,
Jessica Evans, and Sean Nixon (eds). London: Sage Publications.
Theodor Adorno. 1963 [2009]. “Culture Industry Reconsidered,” pp. 15-21 in Media Studies: A reader (3rd
edition), (eds.) Sue Thornham, Caroline Bassett, and Paul Marris. New York: New York University Press.
4. Thursday, September 17: (Bio)medicalization
Peter Conrad. “Medicalization: Context, Characteristics, and Changes,” pp. 3-19 in The
Medicalization of Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Adele Clarke et al. 2003. "Biomedicalization: Technoscientific Transformations of Health, Illness, and U.S.
Biomedicine." American Sociological Review 68(2): 161-194.
5. Tuesday, September 22: Class Inequality and Health
John Mirowsky, Catherine Ross, and John Reynolds. 2000. “Links Between Social Status and Health Status,”
pp. 47-60 in Handbook of Medical Sociology (5th). Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall
Bruce Link and Jo Phelan. 1995. “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease.” Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 35 (Special Issue), 80-94.
6. Thursday, September 24: Social Justice and Health
Camara Jones, Anthony Ryan Hatch, Adewale Troutman. 2009. “Fostering a Social Justice
Approach to Health: Health Equity, Human Rights, and an Antiracism Agenda,” pp. in RL
Braithwaite, SE Taylor, H Treadwell (editors), Health Issues in the Black Community (3rd ed). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Nelson, Alondra. 2012. “Origins of Black Panther Party Health Activism,” pp. 49-73 in Body and
Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Part II: Bodies, Technologies, Health
______________________________________________________________________________
7. Tuesday, September 29: Medicine in Biohistory
Michel Foucault. 1974. “The Birth of Social Medicine,” pp. 319-337 in The Essential Foucault. New
York: The New Press.
8. Thursday, October 1: Bodies as Subjects
Sarah Nettleton. 2010. “The Sociology of the Body,” pp. 47-68 in The New Blackwell Companion to Medical
Sociology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Steven Epstein. 2007. “Histories of the Human Subject,” pp. 30-52 in Inclusion: The Politics of Difference
in Medical Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
9. Tuesday, October 6: Bodies as Objects
Jean Baudrillard. “The Finest Consumer Object: The Body,” pp. 129-150 in The Consumer Society: Myths and
Structures. London: Sage Publications.
Michel Foucault. 1963 [1994] “Seeing and Knowing,” pp. 107-123 in The Birth of the Clinic: An Archeology
of Medical Perception. New York: Vintage.
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10. Thursday, October 8: Bodies Getting Older
Shim, Janet K., Ann J. Russ, and Sharon R. Kaufman. 2006. "Risk, life extension and the pursuit of
medical possibility." Sociology of health & illness 28.4 (2006): 479-502.
Joyce, Kelly, and Meika Loe. "A sociological approach to ageing, technology and health." Sociology of
Health & Illness 32.2 (2010): 171-180.
11. Tuesday, October 13: In-class Presentation of Final Research Paper Assignment
12. Thursday, October 15: Biotechnology Reconsidered
Monica Casper and Daniel Morrison. 2010. “Medical Sociology and Technology: Critical
Engagements.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 51(S): S120-S132.
Harriet Washington. 2006. “The Machine Age: African American Martyrs to Surgical Technology,”
pp. 347-358 in Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from
Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday.
13. Tuesday, October 20: Commodifying Bodies I
Nancy Scheper Hughes. 2011. “Commodity Fetishism in Organs Trafficking,” pp. 31-62 in Commodifying
Bodies (Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Loic Wacquant, eds.). London: Sage Publications.
Maria E. Epele. 2011. “Excess, Scarcity, and Desire among Drug-Using Sex Workers,” pp. 161-180 in
Commodifying Bodies (Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Loic Wacquant, eds.). London: Sage Publications.
14. Thursday: October 22: Commodifying Bodies II
Robert Mitchell and Catherine Waldby. 2010. “National Biobanks: Clinical Labor, Risk Production, and the
Creation of Biovalue.” Science, Technology, and Human Values 35(3): 330-355.
Keith Wailoo. “The Commodification of Black Health,” pp. 107-136 in Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell
Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Fall Break: Friday, October 23 through Wednesday, October 28
15. Thursday, October 29: Gendered Embodiment
Monica Casper and Lisa Jean Moore. 2009. “It Takes Balls: Lance Armstrong and the Triumph of
American Masculinity,” pp. 157-176 in Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility. New York: New York
University Press.
Nelly Oudshorn. 1994. “The birth of sex hormones,” pp. 15-41 in Beyond the Natural Body: an
archeology of sex hormones. New York: Routledge.
16. Tuesday, November 3: Biomonitoring and the Environment
*** Proposal due in class
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Phil Brown. 2004. “Environment and Health,” pp. 143-158 in Handbook of Medical Sociology (5th),
Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall.
Monica Casper and Lisa Jean Moore. 2009. “Fluid Matters: Human Biomonitoring as Gendered
Surveillance,” pp. 109-131 in Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility. New York: New York University
Press.
Part III: Transforming Categories and Materiality
______________________________________________________________________________
17. Thursday, November 5: Fixing Sex
Peter Conrad. 2000. “Continuity: Homosexuality and the Potential for Remedicalization,” pp. 97116 in The Medicalization of Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Laura Mamo and Jennifer R. Fishman. 2001. “Potency in All the Right Places: Viagra as a
Technology of the Gendered Body.” Body & Society 7(4) 13-35.
18. Tuesday, November 10: Eugenics
Harriet Washington. 2006. “The Black Stork: The Eugenic Control of African American
Reproduction” pp. 189-215 in Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black
Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday.
Troy Duster. 2003. “Eugenics by the Back Door,” pp. 114-131 in Backdoor to Eugenics. New York:
Routledge
19. Thursday, November 12: Racial Hierarchies and Genomics
Kim Tallbear. 2014. “The Emergence, Politics, and Marketplace of Native American DNA,” pp. 21-37 in
Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society. (eds.) Daniel Lee Kleinman and Kelly Moore. New York:
Routledge.
Alondra Nelson and Joan H. Robinson. 2014. “The Social Life of DTC Genetics: The case of 23andMe,”
pp. 108-123 in Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society. (eds.) Daniel Lee Kleinman and Kelly
Moore. New York: Routledge.
20. Tuesday, November 17: Side Effects I
Harriet Washington. 2011. “Poison Pills: How Patent Profits Spur the Proliferation of Questionable Drugs,”
pp. 128-179 in Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—and the Consequences for Your
Health and Our Medical Future. New York: Doubleday.
Anne E. Figert and Susan E. Bell. 2014. “Big Pharma and Big Medicine in the Global
Environment,” pp. 456-470 in Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society. (eds.) Daniel Lee
Kleinman and Kelly Moore. New York: Routledge.
21. Thursday, November 19: Side Effects II
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Jeremy Greene. 2007. “The Fall and Rise of a Risk Factor: Cholesterol and Its Remedies,” pp. 151181 in Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
Carl Elliott. 2010. “Pharmaceutical Propaganda,” pp. 93-104 Against Health: How Health Became the
New Morality. Edited by Jonathan Metzl and Anna Kirkland. New York, NY: New York University
Press.
22. Tuesday, November 24: Manufacturing Mental Illness
Lennard Davis. 2009. “Obsession: Against Mental Health,” pp. 121-132 in Against Health: How
Health Became the New Morality. Edited by Jonathan Metzl and Anna Kirkland. New York, NY: New
York University Press.
Jonathan Metzl. 2009. “A Racialized Disease,” pp. 95-108 in The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia
Became A Black Disease. Boston: Beacon Press.
“Thanks-Taking” Break: Wednesday, November 25 through Sunday, November 29
23. Tuesday, December 1: Food Politics
Marion Nestle. 2002. “Working the System,” “Influencing Government,” and “Co-Opting Nutrition
Professionals,” pp. 93-136 in Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Christopher Cook. 2004. “Dying From Consumption,” pp. 44-74 in Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business
and the Coming Food Crisis. New York: The New Press.
24. Thursday, December 3: Nuclear Proliferation
Joseph Masco. 2010. “Atomic Health, or How the Atomic Bomb Altered American Notions of Health,” pp.
133-153 in Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality. Edited by Jonathan Metzl and Anna Kirkland.
New York, NY: New York University Press.
Adriana Petryna. 2002. “Technical Error: Measures of Life and Risk,” pp. 34-62 in Life Exposed: Biological
Citizens After Chernobyl. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
25. Tuesday, December 8: Embodied Citizenship
Paul Farmer. 2003. “On Suffering and Structural Violence: Social and Economic Rights in the
Global Era,” pp. 29-50 in Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor,
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dorothy Roberts. 2012. “Race and the New Biocitizen,” pp. 202-225 in Fatal Invention: How Science,
Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty First Century. New York: The New Press.
26. Thursday, December 10: Last Day of Class
Saturday, December 19: Final Research Papers Due at 12:00pm in Moodle.
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