Courses Taught by Emily Youatt

PUBHLTH200: Health and Society: Introduction to Public Health

  • Undergraduate level
  • Residential
  • Fall, Winter term(s) for residential students;
  • 4 credit hour(s) for residential students;
  • Instructor(s): Emily Youatt (Residential);
  • Prerequisites: none
  • Advisory Prerequisites: Introductory chemistry lecture and introductory biology lecture.
  • Description:

    This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the major issues of public health with a focus on the United States, although global health issues are considered as well. We will examine what those issues are, what determines them, and how they can be altered. As a survey of the entire field of public health, the course provides a broad overview for students wishing no more than an introduction to the field, as well as good grounding for students who wish to pursue additional coursework in public health.

    The winter term offering is a blended learning course. It combines online content and activities with face-to-face learning.

  • Learning Objectives: To give undergraduates a good understanding of what is really important in public health, what determines health, and how society influences health.
  • Syllabus for PUBHLTH200
YouattEmily
Emily Youatt

PUBHLTH314: Public Health in U.S. Popular Culture

  • Undergraduate level
  • Residential
  • Winter term(s) for residential students;
  • 2 credit hour(s) for residential students;
  • Instructor(s): Emily Youatt (Residential);
  • Not offered 2024-2025
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Advisory Prerequisites: PUBHLTH 200
  • Description: Public health has a public relations problem: it is under appreciated, underfunded, and - when working well - its contributions to population health are often invisible. Yet, public health issues engage political, economic, philosophical, moral, and religious questions that are universally - and sometimes personally -- relevant. Using the lens of popular culture, we will critically examine public health history, concepts, and contemporary challenges. In doing so, we will explore diverse perspectives and experiences, make connections between the past and present, and develop greater empathy for the factors shaping people's lives and influencing their health.
  • Learning Objectives: By the end of this course students should be able to: 1. Identify public health concepts, themes, and challenges in popular culture texts. 2. Analyze the roles of setting (time and place), characters, narrative structure, and medium in portraying public health issues. 3. 3. Critique the ways assigned texts represent race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, nativity status, and other social identities, and, when relevant the intersections between these representations and key public health issues. 4. Differentiate the contributions of academic versus popular culture texts in understanding public health issues. 5. Facilitate an effective, inclusive group discussion. 6. Reflect on how your own understanding of a public health issue (or those affected by it) changes based on viewing it through a popular culture text.
  • Syllabus for PUBHLTH314
YouattEmily
Emily Youatt