CHID 480A: Politics, philosophy, and public health
Winter 2025
The basics
Instructor: Jessie Seiler, jseiler@uw.edu; office is Hans Rosling 875
Meetings: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30 to 5:20, CMU 243
Office hours: calendly.com/jessie-seiler/office-hours-chat
Best way to get in touch with me: Email! Please don’t use Canvas to get in touch with me, I’ll never see it, but I check my email way too much and will typically respond quickly if it’s within workday hours (9 am to 5 pm).
Course summary
Some of the most critical challenges of our current era are related to public health. Whether we are considering police and state violence, COVID-19, racism, or oppression more broadly, all of these emergencies cause poor health outcomes, often for the most marginalized people in our society. These issues are all political, with causes that can be traced through histories of a desire for wealth and power. A thorough understanding of how to address them must also be rooted in philosophy, as many of our epistemological and ethical frameworks for public health work are currently not sufficient to help us navigate these crises. This course will explore political and philosophical angles on selected current public health emergencies, including the intersection of anti-Black racism and weight stigma, our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and violence motivated by transphobia and homophobia.
Course structure
Most of our sessions will be seminars, meaning that students will learn through facilitated discussion, guided by a series of assigned readings related to topics that will change each week. Much of the work outside of class will be in preparing for class, including readings and regular reflections. Students will be asked to make decisions about how they would like to be evaluated. All readings will be available on Canvas.
Learning objectives
By the end of this class, students will be able to:
- Define and describe the social and political determinants of health
- Describe the differential effects of the American social and political context on people with marginalized and multiply marginalized identities
- Critique our response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies using their understanding of our current epistemological and aesthetic context
Assignments
Note: grade percentages are tentative, as are some of these assignments themselves; see syllabus section on student choices.
Participation: 30%
Student participation is an essential component of any successful learning environment, and this is particularly true of seminars. Please come prepared to engage one another and discuss readings and films. Participation grades will reflect engagement and active listening. In-person attendance is strongly encouraged, but in the event of illness or other extenuating circumstances (see next section), we will come to an alternative arrangement. Completing the pre-class survey will also count toward the participation grade, as will completing the participation/progress surveys, which are due each Sunday at 5 pm, and the two learning reflections.
Preparation for class: 40%
Because the seminar structure relies on students putting some time and thought into the readings before each class, students will submit reading questions once a week on that week’s readings. These questions will guide our Monday class conversation, so they should focus on points on which the students agreed or disagreed with the reading, points they found confusing, or simply points they’d like to discuss. These will be due each Monday at noon and are intended to help students prepare for class. Wednesday readings will typically be done using Hypothesis.
Final “exam”: 30%
Format TBD (see section on student choices), but this will not be a traditional, sit-down-and-write-in-class type of exam. It will involve doing some reflection on what you’ve learned. Most students in the past have chosen an oral exam; see more details below.
Grading
Since this is a seminar and I’d prefer you to have time to focus on understanding the readings and preparing to talk about them in class, we’re going to use more qualitative than quantitative grades. This means that while you will get a letter grade at the end of the quarter, I won’t be grading individual assignments. However, I will be giving feedback, and you’ll be reflecting on your own work too – that’s what the participation/progress surveys are for. You will use those to give yourself grades; those grades will be the basis of your final grade in the class, with potentially some adjustment from me. We’ll talk through your self-assessment periodically throughout the quarter, and if this method of grading makes you feel anxious or worried, then we’ll figure out something that will work better for you.
Take care of yourself: your health is more important than your grade
Not only are we still in the middle of a pandemic, but also this class will touch on a number of potentially traumatizing topics that may reflect your own experiences. Please don’t forget that your health – both mental and physical – is more important than your grade. If you are feeling sick, please don’t come to class – email me and we’ll figure out how to handle your absence. If a topic is going to be triggering, email me and we’ll figure out how to make room for you.
Class environment
In any class, but especially in a seminar, students and teachers alike need to work together to create an environment where everyone feels that they can share their thoughts and questions safely. Although the instructor is responsible for making sure that we all follow the norms and expectations, defining those expectations, and ultimately the class environment itself, is shared work.