| Sociology of Medicine
One of the major areas of sociology in which graduate students
can focus their studies is the Sociology of Medicine. This is a
specialized field of basic and applied social science whose significance
has grown over the past few decades.
The Nature of the Field
The degree and kind of importance that is attached to health, illness,
and medicine vary from one society to another, but there is no society
in which they are assigned a minor status. This is because health
and illness, as well as a society's way of dealing with them, are
associated with their ability to relate to one another in and through
these roles. Health, illness, and medicine are also closely linked
to some of the most fundamental values and beliefs of a society,
and to the problems of meaning that the experiences of birth, life,
pain, suffering, anxiety, accident, aging, mortality, and death
evoke.
Although the charge that American society has become "medicalized"
is not unqualifiedly true, health, illness, and medicine do seem
to have become primary channels through which American society now
grapples with questions of value and belief. In addition to medical
and nursing professionals and biologists, engineers, lawyers, judges,
politicians, philosophers, theologians, social scientists, science
writers, and journalists are involved in issues pertaining to health,
illness, and medicine. These issues are now in the public domain.
They are major subjects of reportage and deliberation in the media,
and in the courts, legislatures, and the executive offices of our
local and national government.
Fundamental training in social theory and methodology, and a systematic
introduction to the body of sociological knowledge that the discipline
has developed are essential to an adequate analysis and interpretation
of such complex phenomena as the societal and cultural significance
of health, illness, and medicine. Accordingly, students who choose
to specialize in the Sociology of Medicine are expected to do so
within the framework of the foundation courses required for graduate
students in sociology.
Departmental and University Resources
The Sociology Department of the University of Pennsylvania is well
known for the quality and scope of the training that it gives in
the Sociology of Medicine. A number of its faculty have special
competence, broad American and cross-cultural experience, extensive
professional contacts, and international reputations in this special
field. They offer courses explicitly concerned with the ways in
which social, cultural, psychological, and historical factors shape
and affect health, illness, and medicine in America, and in a variety
of other societies. "Medicine" in this context includes
medical science and technology, medical care, medical professions
and practice, medical education and socialization, medical ethics,
and health policy issues.
Several of the sociology faculty have appointments in the School
of Medicine and/or the School of Nursing as well, where they teach,
consult, and conduct and supervise research. They provide bridges
to relevant courses, field experiences, and research opportunities
in these professional schools, and their associated medical, nursing,
and hospital facilities.
The Sociology of Medicine capacities of the Department are an integral
part of the wide medical "ethos" of the University of
Pennsylvania. The "theme of medicine" is an intellectual
leitmotif that plays an important role in the orientation and curriculum
of many of the University's departments and schools.
The core faculty in the Sociology of Medicine at the present time
are: Linda Aiken, Charles Bosk, Douglas Ewbank, Reneé Fox,
Samuel Preston and Jason Schnittker.
Courses in this domain that are offered
regularly are as follows:
Sociology 134 Sociology of Health and Illness (Aiken)
Sociology 230 Sociology of Aging (Allen Glicksman)
Sociology 275 Medical Sociology (Jason Schnittker)
Sociology 300-301 Deviance/Medicine/Culture (Bosk)
Sociology 571 Health and Social Policy (Aiken)
Sociology 573 Law Medicine and Public Policy (Bosk)
Sociology 704 Applied Research in Health Services (Aiken)
Sociology 720 Research Workshop in the Sociology of Medicine (Bosk)
Last Modified:
18-Sep-2007
For updates, comments please contact:
saunderc@ssc.upenn.edu
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