Course Information 

This two credit  course was developed through a collaboration between members of Radical Public Health (RPH), UIC School of Public Health (SPH) graduate students, and faculty who were brought together in 2018 by a sense of urgency to address ongoing threats to democracy, social justice, and the public’s health. Reactionary politics and policies--and resulting unjust circumstances--have a long history and are resurgent today. This course will focus on the historical, social, cultural, and political factors related to the historical and contemporary health, and the historical and contemporary resistance and rebellion through public health, as seen through interdisciplinary and cross-movement work. Through the exploration of these legacies, we seek to learn how today, we can leverage our positionality and resources for social justice and health equity. This course will provide a historical understanding of structural and socioeconomic determinants of health and point to both modern and historical examples of how we can leverage our work for advocacy. Through guest lecturers and action labs, students will also learn from others’ experiences and workshop tangible skills that will prepare them to engage in action and advocacy with others across disciplines and sectors. 

Radical Public Health (RPH), a collaborator on this course, is composed of students, alumni, faculty, staff, practitioners, and community members who seek to address the systemic, underlying causes of public health challenges and to consider more radical solutions. RPH hosts group discussions, guest lectures, film screenings, panel discussions, and teach-ins on relevant issues. This course is supported by the Community Health Sciences (CHS) division at the UIC School of Public Health. 

To learn more about why this class is open to the public, visit this article: https://publichealth.uic.edu/news-stories/decentralizing-knowledge-in-public-health-education-one-course-at-a-time/.

Course History

You can visit our class websites from past years to learn about that year's theme, guest speakers, readings, and watch lecture recordings.

2025 Planning Committee

Planning for this semester began in March 2024. The planning group was organized by Radical Public Health (RPH) and consisted of UIC undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as community members. The group met biweekly or weekly throughout the past 10 months. The following individuals contributed to making this class possible. We would like to recognize and thank other RPH members, CHS faculty, and the Collaboratory for Health Justice for their support in making this course a reality.

Session Information

Session Dates and Times

This course meets weekly on Mondays from 6-8 pm from January 13th-April 28th. There will be no class on March 24th due to UIC's spring break.  The course features guest lecture and action lab class sessions. Action labs will include interactive activities to facilitate development of critical public health skills. 

Community members

Community members are invited to join all guest lectures and action labs. There are 4 weeks of the semester that are only open to UIC students who are taking the course for credit. In these sessions, the registered students will lead small group discussions about the weekly content and make connections to the annual course theme.

UIC students taking the course for credit

UIC students taking the course for credit are expected to attend class each week and complete all assignments detailed in the course syllabus.

Zoom

This course takes place on Zoom. Please visit the Registration Links tab for information about how to register for sessions. 

Instruction Team

Syllabus

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, students should be able to do the following: 

• Describe the impact of history on public health, health inequities including relevant theories (i.e. physical embodiment)

  • Articulate the importance of history, laws, policies, and power structures to understand and protect the health of the public 

• Describe key historical, social, cultural, and political factors related to historical and contemporary health and well-being of both advantaged and marginalized groups

• Evaluate the ways that power structures and systems of oppression have shaped historical and contemporary social injustices and health inequities throughout history 

• Explore historic and modern examples of resistance to systems of oppression across multiple areas of health and among various population groups

• Develop skills to take action against a threat to the public’s health, and increase confidence in one’s ability to take action using these skills 

• Develop skills and experience working with partners or stakeholders across public health sectors or other fields to promote public health and social justice

• Demonstrate application of advocacy around a course topic for your own professional and/or academic work by developing an advocacy tool (i.e., toolkit, workshop, presentation, infographic, social media toolkit, annotated bibliography, podcast).

Questions/Comments

If you have questions or comments, please send an email to Radical Public Health (rph.uic@gmail.com) with E of I in the subject line. RPH will respond to emails within 48 hours with the exception of emails received over the weekend and holidays.