Health, Social Justice, and the Life Course Subprogram

In the Health, Social Justice, and the Life Course subprogram, students examine how health and well-being are culturally shaped, experienced across human development, and unequally distributed across social differences. Health and well-being are complex concepts that encompass whether and how individuals feel valued and comfortable, are well-functioning, and are living close to their full potential. They have as much to do with the biological components of disease as they do with the cultural shaping of health, or having access to high quality foods and education, and clean air and water. Our experiences of these conditions are also tied to how we learn and grow across infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. 

Drawing on concepts from anthropology, human development, and other social sciences, the “Health, Social Justice, and the Life Course” subprogram provides students with the tools for improving the lives of individuals in their complex social and material environments. The subprogram is the only spot in the curriculum at Sonoma State where students learn about the life course from birth to death, where individual lives are studied in their rich biological, cultural, and material contexts, and where health is understood holistically to include not just disease, but also illness, disability, and well-being.

This kind of training provides students with exceptional opportunities for work and additional study. Students go onto careers in social work, counseling, nursing, community health, education, speech pathology, human resources, health policy and advocacy, and public health. They work with children and adolescents, individuals with disabilities, and the aging, among other populations. Students also regularly pursue additional training in graduate school. 

Learning Outcomes

1. Analyze the way that the life course comes to be culturally shaped as well as influenced by social positions such as gender race, sexuality, disability, and class.
2. Critically evaluate the ways that health and well-being can be used as frameworks for understanding processes of development in the life course.

Want to learn more? Review the HDAA Curriculum Map.

Description of curriculum

Students in the HSJLC subprogram take the required introductory course (HDAA 250 Health, Social Justice, and the Life Course) and then select three additional courses from the following list: 

HDAA 203 Introduction to Human Aging 

HDAA 354 Difference and Domination 

HDAA 355WIC Health and Disease in the Past  

HDAA 375 Unequal Childhoods in the United States 

HDAA 376 Diversity and Inequity in American Aging 

HDAA 378 Human Development in Evolutionary Perspective (GE UD 5) 

HDAA 379 Culture and Language of Biomedicine 

HDAA 380 Mental Health in Culture 

HDAA 381 Culture and Politics of Well-Being 

HDAA 382 Critical Medical Anthropology 

HDAA 383 Forensic Anthropology Theory and Practice (GE UD 5) 

HDAA 384 Sign Languages and Signing Communities