Over the course of the term, we will focus on three main resources: two books, and one 8-episode podcast series. You will need to acquire the books below for yourself, but the podcast episodes will be made freely available to the class. All other assigned readings, including journal articles, popular media (i.e. podcast episodes, newspaper and magazine articles) will be linked to directly from the page for the relevant class session.
The first book we will focus in on is The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, which is an in-depth exploration of the famous story of the attempt by the pioneering epidemiologist John Snow to convince public health authorities and the public that a series of Cholera outbreaks in London in the 1850s and 1860s were caused in fact by an infectious agent - the V. Cholerae bacterium - rather than miasma, i.e. the foul smelling air that was ever-present in Victorian London.
There are several copies of this book available via the UM libraries, although it is not available online. If you are able to pick up a physical or ebook copy, I highly recommend doing so as it is inexpensive and is likely to be a resource you return to over time!
The second book we will read in-depth is Infectious Fear by Columbia University medical historian Samuel Kelton Roberts. This book is a deeply researched and well-written history of the linkages between residential segregation and racial disparities in Tuberculosis infection and mortality in Baltimore during the first half of the 20th century. This book is invaluable both for its depiction and explanation of relationships between residential segregation and disparities in TB infection risks, but also for the ways that it illuminates key concepts in social epidemiology and public health.
Only one copy of this book is available via the UM library system; others may be accessible via interlibrary loan. This book is somewhat more expensive than the first, but I assigned it because I believe strongly that it is an important and valuable addition to the class.
The final item that we will spend a significant amount of course time on is the 8-episode fifth season of the podcast series Fiasco, which is entitled The AIDS Crisis. This is an exceptionally well-done podcast series that tracks the HIV/AIDS pandemic from its origins to the present day. This series is unique in that it incorporates significant amounts of primary source audio footage from the 1980s and 1990s, including many interviews with people living with HIV and AIDS across the entire time period of the pandemic.
If you have an Audible account, the audiobook version of Jane McAlevey’s “No Shortcuts” is available free: https://www.audible.com/pd/No-Shortcuts-Audiobook/1515948293
https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/power-mapping-101
Power Mapping guide from the Union of Concerned Scientists