Evidence of renewed interest in the study of how the places we live in impact our health can be found across many disciplines, ranging from sociology and public health to geography and economics. This course emphasizes the contributions of communication to this line of research. Communication is an important social process through which neighborhood health effects manifest, but also a mechanism through which individuals, families, and community-based organizations and institutions can make the neighborhoods they live in and serve healthier places. In this class, you will be introduced to the burgeoning multidisciplinary literature around neighborhoods and health as well as the salient theoretical, methodological, and policy debates. More importantly, putting knowledge developed through the course to work, students will work individually and in small teams to diagnose public health challenges in local communities and develop proposals for how to solve them.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Summarize how research and policy approach issues of public health and particularly the relationship between health and the places in which individuals live.
• Explain the structural factors and the processes through which the places we live in impact health.
• Identify the contributions of communication, as a discipline, to the growing interdisciplinary body of research that addresses public health issues at the community level.
• Evaluate theoretical and methodological perspectives and frameworks developed to address community health issues.
• Generate theory-driven research designs to address community health issues.
• Diagnose pressing health issues in local communities and develop solutions.