A Sociomedical Sciences Approach to Public Health…

Context matters. This idea is at the heart of teaching, research, practice, and policy initiatives in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. It informs our work in areas such as the social determinants of health, public health and the built environment, needs assessment and program development, and the history and politics of public health.

While behavior is critically important for promoting health and wellness, within a sociomedical framework of analysis, individual choices are shaped and constrained by local, state, and national conditions as well as broad social, political, cultural, and historical forces. As a consequence, effective public health interventions embrace multiple levels and complex systems by confronting the economic, political, and cultural factors that influence population health.

While united by this basic conceptual framework, the anthropologists, sociologists, historians, psychologists, social epidemiologists, ethicists, and faculty from other professional disciplines who come together in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences are engaged in policy analysis and health promotion and disease prevention activities in many different domains, from global infections and threats to local conditions that shape disparities between neighborhoods with and without the resources to foster healthy environments.

To study these topics, faculty members bring to bear a number of social science methodologies: population studies and epidemiological research, narrative and survey methods, and ethnographic and historical research. To address them, faculty are engaged in needs assessment, program development and evaluation, policy analysis, and advocacy.

As is true within the field of public health more broadly, the specific contexts in which we conduct our teaching, research, practice, and policy initiatives have expanded. New York City is a dynamic and diverse global city, and represents an important laboratory for faculty and student activities. Faculty members are also currently engaged in research in Brazil, South Africa, Tanzania, Mexico, and Vietnam.

Social science matters. We welcome you to our website and invite you to learn more about our diverse student and faculty body, and the exciting changes to our educational program. The disciplinary insights of the social sciences are essential in creating, implementing, and evaluating health promotion initiatives that may be scaled up to eliminate health disparities and improve population health worldwide.

– Amy Fairchild, PhD
Associate Professor and Chair