Health Sciences

In this course, students analyze the interplay between migration and health, i.e. the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of migrants. The ability of a migrant to integrate into a host society is based upon combined mental, physical, cultural, and social well-being. Absence of physical ill-health is not by itself sufficient for successful integration in a host society. However, the structural inequalities experienced by migrants have a significant impact on overall health and well-being. 

Language and communication are important aspects of how societies and individuals understand and deal with health and well-being. This course examines key aspects of communication in relation to health and well-being across a range of scales, including the societal and community scales, within health and social care settings and between individuals. Students are introduced not only to ideas and theory on these topics but also to practical activities, which enables them to reflect on their own experiences of communication styles across these settings and to further develop specific skills. Through lectures/workshops and tutorials students explore the ways in which (1) health matters are represented and discussed in public media, (2) language and communication shape individuals' experiences of health and wellbeing, and the role talk plays in help-seeking and health-related behaviors, and (3) language and communication are constitutive of the delivery of health and social care. 

The course provides an overview of working in the United Kingdom and examines the changing organizational structures of work in Britain. It examines the social and economic changes that affect the workplace in the UK. Topics covered include the sociology of work; trade unions; oppression at work; generational changes at work. 

This public health course provides an exciting opportunity to strengthen understanding of the role of social and structural factors in health and how more distal drivers of inequity interact with more proximal individual determinants of health outcomes and behaviors. In addition to highlighting contemporary theories and research that take an ecological approach to public health, the course showcases key examples of contemporary health issues affected by broader social and structural factors, such as social stigma of specific groups. The course also encompasses an overview of social and structural approaches to public health and health promotion, such as through social policy and environmental change, complementing well-known education and counselling approaches.