New summer 2025 course offering from DPHS: HS 490/690

Where we live, where we work, where we go, and how we get there may all impact our behaviors and ultimately our health and well-being. This course examines the urban environment, in particular, those aspects of urban and urbanizing environments created by humans. Drawing examples from Alaska and the Circumpolar North, with additional examples drawn from 'global cities' it is organized around a paradox: how is it possible for urban and urbanizing centers to simultaneously be a root cause of ill health for marginalized communities and a source of inspiration and aspiration for design and planning solutions to health problems? This includes how homes, neighborhoods, cities, and regions impact public health challenges such as obesity, chronic disease, mental health, infectious disease, and injuries. Along the way, we will tackle questions including: What makes a person or a place healthy? How does urban planning achieve healthiness, and who/what is excluded in this pursuit? How do people secure their belongings when exclusionary urban design places them in unhealthy situations? This course will teach students to translate scientific findings to design healthy communities and develop interventions to promote urban health by examining the relationship between urban planning and public environmental health.
Seats are still available for this online Summer 2025 course, so register now!