Health & Place: Spatial Thinking & Applied Methods

3 units

Along with person and time, place is one of the three key characteristics via which public health researchers and practitioners describe health and disease patterns in populations. Health and social disparities can be the result of geographic location and/or of the social, cultural, economic, or political contexts of this location. In this course, students will learn to use and integrate spatial thinking as well as ecologic, quantitative, and social approaches to frame and tackle public health problems. Throughout the course, health geography and spatial epidemiology will be used as conceptual and methodologic frameworks for understanding health and place relations. In addition to covering the use of key spatial concepts, students will acquire basic hands-on experience with a range of applied analytic tools. Prior experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) preferred.