Urban Health Disparities – Find the syllabus and links to readings here; and links to data visualization tools here.
This course provides students with a foundation for understanding how history, power, privilege and structural inequality interact to produce urban health disparities. We look at the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization on both physical and mental health and the root causes of racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care. Learn more
I teach the following courses at American University: Contemporary Social Theory (Spring 2015), The Rise of Critical Social Thought (Fall and Spring) and Classical Social Theory (Fall 2014).
My goal as an instructor is to provide a solid foundation of theory and core concepts while bridging these fundamentals in a way that enables students to recognize the applicability of course content to current events and to challenges and issues they are likely to confront as future change agents and leaders…
I believe my mission as a sociology instructor is to help students look beyond their own understanding and the present moment in order to see how power relations and various forms of inequality (e.g., race, class, gender) are embedded in society through language, culture, policy and social institutions. Theory provides a critical foundation for this endeavor. Thus it is my philosophy that students should be exposed to a broad range of theories to help inform their analysis and sociological imagination. Moreover, it is important to provide a clear historical narrative to help students understand how social institutions reproduce inequality.
As a black female scholar whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, I am committed to creating an inclusive learning environment that is sensitive to intellectual and cultural diversity. With this in mind, I want my students to feel open to expressing their thoughts and asking questions. Given the often controversial nature of the content of sociological courses, and the passionate debates that can arise in the classroom, it is important that students feel that they have a safe space to “give voice” to their perspectives and experiences.”