The U.S. stands out among industrialized nations for its relatively low life expectancy, poor health outcomes, and high rates of chronic disease - despite spending more than any other country in the world on healthcare. But while these statistics themselves are relatively uncontroversial, their meanings are not. American bodies are politically embattled: debates about belonging, identity, power, personal and collective responsibility, and what constitutes a good or aspirational life play out in and as discourses about the state of bodies and the provenance of their ills. American bodies are in many ways diverse - but they are also conditioned by broadly shared (but unevenly distributed) exposure to a unique constellation of infra/structural, environmental, and social determinants of health. In this course, we will read broadly across disciplines in order to survey the conditions that shape American bodies, and consider how bodies and their un/healthy status come to speak in cultural and political discourse.
Course Attributes: EN S; BU BA; BU IS; AS SSC; FA SSC; AR SSC
