Public Health 284H - Social Facts & Cin Acts, Hons

Sociocultural norms impact health and stem, in part, from cultural products such as art, literature, and film. This course will consider popular motion pictures as both data and intervention on societal knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about health, identities, and social determinants. Students will be provided with an introductory understanding of public health concepts through critical analysis of popular cinema. A combination of lectures, readings and films will enable students to understand relationships between social norms shaped, in part, by movies and psychosocial, sexual health, and chronic disease outcomes. Students will learn to examine the assumptions made by filmmakers, motion pictures as partial representations of society, audiences, and other key elements. This course uses film to explore and question the cultural landscape of public health in today's society. Public health is a diverse field that reaches not only into many areas of daily life, but into our cultural imagination as well.

Open to Commonwealth College students only. For Public Health majors, this course will count for the 300+ Public Health elective requirement. This course will open to all commonwealth college honors students April 13th.