Scatterplot – the unruly darlings of public sociology



Soc 724 VT: Colloquium: Body and HealthClassroom: HHB 456Wednesdays, 1-3:30Instructor: Mieke Beth ThomeerOffice Hours: Monday, 1:00-4:00 pm or by appointmentOffice Location: HHB 460PE-mail: mthomeer@uab.edu Class Website: CanvasOverviewA sociological study of health implicitly concerns an understanding and inspection of the physical body. Yet medical sociologists often do not explicitly consider the body or the ways in which health is embodied. The body is both material and symbolic, and interrogating the ways in which the body is socially constructed and understood enhances our own health research. This course will engage with theories, research methods, and empirical examples in the sociological study of the body, with a focus on health. This course exists at the intersection of multiple subfields, including gender, health, aging, sexuality, family, stress, medicine, and genetics. In this seminar, we will draw on an interdisciplinary literature and use a range of theoretical traditions to consider ways in which the body is understood. What is “natural” about the body, and what is pathologized? How are bodies commodified? How do we categorize bodies by race, class, gender, and sexuality, and what are the implications of these categorizations? How do we understand changes in the body? How is the body shaped by health and illness? How do we best study the body, including integrating genetics and biomarkers into our study of health? How does a focus on stress and the body help us better understand health disparities?Logistics1) This is a seminar course. Attendance is mandatory. Students are expected to show up to every class having read all required material. The quality of our discussions depends on your full participation. 2) Over the course of the semester, each student will be expected to write a 1-2 page memo (single-spaced) responding to each week’s readings. These comments will be submitted before class to Canvas. You can choose to skip writing memos for three classes. These memos can be informal but they should help you focus your ideas in a way that can contribute to our conversation. You have flexibility with what you include in the memos and how many readings you include. Each memo should include discussion of at least three readings and can include (a) a critique of the readings and how these critiques could be addressed, discussing both strengths and weaknesses of the paper; (b) a synthetic analysis of some dimension of the course readings that you found compelling and warrants further discussion, including how this reading informs your own research or how it informs the field of medical sociology; or (c) how main ideas from these readings interact with and inform each other or past readings. Your memos should give me an idea of what the readings made you think about and how this relates to the larger field of medical sociology. These memos should also be helpful in crafting your final project. In addition to the memo, you should submit two to three well-crafted questions for the class to consider as a group. Questions may target what you consider the key issues/problems raised by the author(s) in question, a shortcoming in the argument/evidence, a puzzling claim, broader implications, exciting/provocative comparisons, and so forth. You can bring in ideas from earlier classes and readings, as well as from other sociology classes and readings. These questions need to be submitted on the Discussion Board on Canvas the evening before class each week (by 5 pm). The class leaders will consult this to construct their questions. 3) Each student will be responsible for helping me lead two class discussions. Sign-up sheets will be passed around during the first week of class, and two (or three) students will sign up for each week. As a co-leader, your job is to introduce the material, including its strengths and weaknesses (many of the same topics you could also discuss in your memo) and to come up with a few substantive questions in the form of a 1-2 page handout (to be electronically distributed to the rest of the group by 12:30 pm on the day of class). You will work with another student to construct these questions, and you should pool some of these questions from those submitted by other students as well as come up with your own. Questions should cover each of the readings.4) The final assignment for this course will be a 10-15 page paper (double-spaced) on a topic related to this course. The paper can be analytical, critically reflecting on a substantive issue related to the sociology of health and the body, or you may choose to write a research proposal, drawing on theoretical perspectives and existing empirical work to identify an interesting empirical question within medical sociology. Ideally you should choose a topic that relates to your own research that you could build on and use in the future. You will meet with Prof. Thomeer in March to discuss final topic. We will discuss proposed projects in class on March 21st, and final approval for topics will be given on this date. Students will present their research in progress in class on April 11th and 18th. These presentations are both an opportunity to share your work with the class and to receive feedback on your project before finalizing your paper. The final paper is due on April 22nd. PrintingAccording to department policy, you should not print your readings on the office printer.?You are free to bring a tablet or laptop to class, or print the readings at home or at another printing station on campus.? GradingClass Participation: 25%Memos:25%Leading Class:25%Final paper:25%Grading Policy:Final grades will be based upon a standard grading scale: A = 90-100B = 80-89C = 70-79D = 60-69F = 59 and belowBookRene Almeling. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm. University of California Press.All other readings available on Canvas.ScheduleWeek 1, Introduction: Overview of the course (January 10)Look through JHSB and SSM: Where is the body?Week 2, Bringing in the Body in Sociology and Medical Sociology (January 17)Moore, L.J., & M.J. Casper. 2015. Chapter 1: Introduction. The Body: Social and Cultural Dissections. Williams, S. J. 2006. Medical Sociology and the Biological Body: Where Are We Now and Where Do We Go from Here??Health,?10(1), 5-30.Zola, Irving Kenneth. 1991. Bringing Our Bodies and Ourselves Back In: Reflections on a Past, Present, and Future “Medical Sociology.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32(1): 1-16.Twigg, J. 2004. The Body, Gender, and Age: Feminist Insights in Social Gerontology. Journal of Aging Studies. 21, 277-280.Crimmins, E., J.K. Kim, and S. Vasunilashorn. 2010. Biodemography: New Approaches to Understanding Trends and Differences in Population Health and Mortality. Demography ,47 Supplement, S41-S64.Week 3, Biomarkers, Stress, and the Body (January 24) Pearlin, L. I., Schieman, S., Fazio, E. M., & Meersman, S. C. 2005. Stress, Health, and The Life Course: Some Conceptual Perspectives.?Journal of Health and Social Behavior,?46(2), 205-219.McEwen, B.S. 1998. Stress, Adaptation, and Disease: Allostasis and Allostatic Load. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 840, 33-44.Piazza, J.R., D.M. Almeida, N.O. Dmitrieva, and L.C. Klein. 2010. Frontiers in the Use of Biomarkers of Health in Research on Stress and Aging. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65B(5), 513-525.Dowd, J.B., A. Zajacova, and A. Aiello. 2009. Early Origins of Health Disparities: Burden of Infection, Health, and Socioeconomic Status in U.S. Children. Social Science & Medicine, 68(4):699-707.Seeman, T., Epel, E., Gruenewald, T., Karlamangla, A., & McEwen, B. S. 2010. Socio‐economic differentials in peripheral biology: Cumulative allostatic load.?Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,?1186(1), 223-239.Week 4, Genetics (January 31)Freese, J. 2008. Genetics and the Social Science Explanation of Individual Outcomes. American Journal of Sociology, 114(S1), S1-S35.Shanahan, M. J., & S. M. Hofer. 2005. Social Context in Gene–Environment Interactions: Retrospect and Prospect.?The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,?60(Special Issue 1), 65-76.Guo, G. 2005. Twin Studies: How Much Can They Tell Us about Nature and Nurture? Contexts, 4(3), 43-47.Duster, T. 2006. Comparative Perspectives and Competing Explanations: Taking On the Newly Configured Reductionist Challenge to Sociology. American Sociological Review, 71(1), 1-15.Phelan, J. C., B.G. Link, & N. M. Feldman. 2013. The Genomic Revolution and Beliefs about Essential Racial Differences: A Backdoor to Eugenics? American Sociological Review, 78(2), 167-191.Shostak, Sara, Jeremy Freese, Bruce G. Link, and Jo C. Phelan. 2009. The Politics of the Gene: Social Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes. Social Psychology Quarterly. 72(1): 77-93.Optional: 5, Genetics and Biomarkers Examples (February 7)Boardman, J., et al. 2011. Population Composition, Public Policy, and the Genetics of Smoking. Demography, 48(4), 1517-1533.Liu, H. and G. Guo. 2015. Lifetime Socioeconomic Status, Historical Context, and Genetic Inheritance in Shaping Body Mass in Middle and Late Adulthood. American Sociological Review, 80(4), 705-737. Halpern-Manners, A., Schnabel, L., Hernandez, E. M., Silberg, J. L., & Eaves, L. J. 2016. The Relationship between Education and Mental Health: New Evidence from a Discordant Twin Study.?Social Forces,?95(1), 107-131.Seeman, T.E., E. Crimmins, M.H. Huang, B. Singer, A. Bucur, & T. Gruenewald. 2004. Cumulative Biological Risk and Socio-economic differences in Mortality: MacArthur Study of Successful Aging. Social Science and Medicine, 58(10), 1985-1997.Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Derry, H. M., & Fagundes, C. P. 2015. Inflammation: Depression fans the flames and feasts on the heat.?American Journal of Psychiatry,?172(11), 1075-1091.Needham, B. L., Fernandez, J. R., Lin, J., Epel, E. S., & Blackburn, E. H. 2012. Socioeconomic status and cell aging in children. Social science & medicine, 74(12), 1948-1951.Week 6, Illness and the Body (February 14)Timmermans, S., & S. Haas. 2008. Towards a Sociology of Disease. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30(5), 659-676.Ezekiel, M. J., Talle, A., Juma, J. M., & Klepp, K. I. 2009. “When in the body, it makes you look fat and HIV negative”: The constitution of antiretroviral therapy in local discourse among youth in Kahe, Tanzania. Social Science & Medicine, 68(5), 957-964.Charmaz, K. 1995. The Body, Identity, and Self: Adapting To Impairment. The Sociological Quarterly, 36(4), 657-680.Barker, K. 2008. Electronic Support Groups, Patient-Consumers, and Medicalization: The Case of Contested Illness. Journal of Health & Social Behavior, 49, 20-36.Pescosolido, B. A., B.L. Perry, J.S. Long, J.K. Martin, J.I. Nurnberger Jr, & V. Hesselbrock. 2008. Under The Influence of Genetics: How Transdisciplinarity Leads Us to Rethink Social Pathways to Illness. American Journal of Sociology,?114, S171-S201.Week 7, Gender, Sex, and the Body (February 21)Fausto-Sterling, A. 2005. The Bare Bones of Sex. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30(2), 1491-1527.Short, S. E., Y.C. Yang, Y. C., & T.M. Jenkins. 2013. Sex, Gender, Genetics, and Health.?American Journal of Public Health, 103(S1), S93-S101.Springer, K.W., J.M. Stellman, & R.M. Jordan-Young. 2012. Beyond a Catalogue of Differences: A Theoretical Frame and Good Practice Guidelines for Researching Sex/Gender in Human Health. Social Science & Medicine, 74(11), 1817-1824.Pfeffer, C. A. 2008. Bodies in Relation—Bodies in Transition: Lesbian Partners of Trans Men and Body Image. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 12(4), 325-345.Jenkins, Tania M. and Susan E. Short. 2017. Negotiating Intersex: A Case for Revisiting the Theory of Social Diagnosis. Social Science & Medicine 175: 91-98.Week 8, Race, Ethnicity, and the Body (February 28)Guo, G., Y. Fu, H. Lee, T. Cai, K. M. Harris, & Y. Li. 2014. Genetic Bio-ancestry and Social Construction of Racial Classification in Social Surveys in the Contemporary United States. Demography, 51(1), 141-172.Frank, R. 2014. The Molecular Reinscription of Race: A Comment on “Genetic Bio-Ancestry and Social Construction of Racial Classification in Social Surveys in the Contemporary United States”. Demography, 51(6), 2333-2336.Panofsky, Aaron, and Catherine Bliss. 2017. Ambiguity and Scientific Authority: Population Classification in Genomic Science. American Sociological Review 82(1): 59-87.Fausto-Sterling, A. 2008. The Bare Bones of Race. Social Studies of Science, 38(5), 657-694.Geronimus, A.T., et al. 2015. Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-Based Sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 56(2), 199-224.Jackson, J. S., Knight, K. M., & Rafferty, J. A. 2010. Race and unhealthy behaviors: chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course.?American journal of public health,?100(5), 933-939.Week 9, The Aging and Disabled Body (March 7)Clarke, L.H. and M. Griffin. 2007. The Body Natural and the Body Unnatural: Beauty Work and Aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 21, 187-201.Geronimus, A.T., M.T. Hickens, D. Keene, and J. Bound. 2006. “Weathering” and Age Patterns of Allostatic Load Scores Among Blacks and Whites in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 96(5), 826-833.Verbrugge, L. M. & A.M. Jette. 1994. The Disablement Process.?Social Science & Medicine,?38(1), 1-14.Hughes, B. & K. Paterson. 1997. The Social Model of Disability and the Disappearing Body: Towards a Sociology of Impairment. Disability & Society, 12(3), 325-340.Lucas, Jeffrey W., Mollie Greenberg, & Kelly Beavan. OnlineFirst. Research on Physical Disability in Sociological Social Psychology: The State of the Field and Future Directions. Sociology Compass.Week 10, The Commodified Body (March 21)Discuss Proposed Paper Topics in ClassAlmeling, R. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm. University of California Press.Week 11, Reproduction and the Body (March 28)Conley, D. & E. Rauscher. 2013. Genetic Interactions with Prenatal Social Environment Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 54(1),109-27.Scharber, H. 2014. Does ‘Out of Work’ Get into the Womb? Exploring the Relationship between Employment and Adverse Birth Outcomes. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 55(3), 266-282.Barha, C. K., Hanna, C. W., Salvante, K. G., Wilson, S. L., Robinson, W. P., Altman, R. M., & Nepomnaschy, P. A. 2016. Number of children and telomere length in women: a prospective, longitudinal evaluation. PloS one, 11(1), e0146424.Cavanagh, S. 2011. Early Pubertal Timing and Union Formation Behaviors of Young Women. Social Forces, 89, 1217-1238.Waggoner, M. R. 2015. Cultivating the Maternal Future: Public Health and the Prepregnant Self.?Signs,?40(4), 939-962.Elson, J. 2003. Hormonal Hierarchy: Hysterectomy and Stratified Stigma. Gender & Society, 17, 750-770.Week 12, Body Weight (April 4)Masters, R. K., Powers, D. A., & Link, B. G. 2013. Obesity and US mortality risk over the adult life course.?American journal of epidemiology,?177(5), 431-442.(Optional: See editor response and authors’ response)Campos, P., Saguy, A., Ernsberger, P., Oliver, E., & Gaesser, G. 2005. The epidemiology of overweight and obesity: public health crisis or moral panic?.?International journal of epidemiology,?35(1), 55-60.Guthman, J. 2013. Fatuous measures: the artifactual construction of the obesity epidemic.?Critical Public Health,?23(3), 263-273.Granberg, E. (2006). “Is that all there is?” Possible selves, self-change, and weight loss. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69(2), 109-126.Saguy, A. C., & Ward, A. 2011. Coming out as fat: Rethinking stigma.?Social Psychology Quarterly,?74(1), 53-75.Optional: Wedow, R., Briley, D. A., Short, S. E., & Boardman, J. D. 2016. Gender and genetic contributions to weight identity among adolescents and young adults in the US.?Social Science & Medicine,?165, 99-107.Weeks 13-14, Discuss Final Projects (April 11 and 18)April 22nd- Final paper due ................
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