HSSP 152B: Introduction to Demography: Social Determinants of Health and WellbeingInstructor: Laurence Simon Prerequisites: None Course Description: The world’s population is undergoing dramatic shifts with a global decline in birth rates and rapid aging. This course provides students with an understanding of core concepts, analytical methods, and social and health consequences of population dynamics. The course will apply these to thematic and policy areas from domestic to global including poverty and inequality, maternal and child health, aging, fertility and epidemiological transitions, workforce, and immigration. Students will grapple with demographic data as they reflect existing social stratification across class and caste, occupation, economic security, and migration and as they influence human development in the United States and in poorer nations alike. Students will learn skills widely utilized in social sciences to understand the challenges of the present as they have evolved from the past and as they can help guide us into the future.</br> </br> An Interactive and Stimulating Pedagogy </br> • Sessions often begin with a brief lecture on the session’s topic. Here are some examples:</br> - Why did China move from their strict One Child Policy to now providing financial incentives for families to have 2 or 3 children?</br> - Why are fertility rates falling in some of the poorest countries as well as in advanced economies such as Japan and Germany?</br> - Why is there up to a 30-year discrepancy in Life Expectancy between Census tracts in the City of Chicago?</br> • Student facilitators introduce the week’s discussion papers.</br> • Small groups work on research reports for class presentations.</br> • Guest speakers, as available, particularly on the Mississippi Delta, will join selected classes via ZOOM. </br></br> Learning Objectives</br> The course seeks to teach competencies enabling students to:</br> • define demographic principles that influence decision-making in state and federal governments and that shape national and international aid, investment and development programs.</br> • understand and apply the research of professional demographers in the students’ academic and professional careers</br> • visualize demographic patterns and trends and the complex interactions of demographic variables</br> • access and use demographic datasets</br> • focus their learning through a case study of the Mississippi Delta or other study area closer to Brandeis.</br> </br> The Mississippi Delta Case Study</br> For a semester project, students will work in teams to conduct demographic research into the state of Mississippi and particularly the Mississippi Delta. This work will slowly build a demographic profile of human development indicators drawn from current data analysis relevant to HSSP and cross-listed concentrations. Students will also consider the current situation as influenced by the historical legacies of enslavement, the plantation economy and societal norms, the Reconstruction Era, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter Movements. Brief oral and written group reports will be presented in class.</br> </br> Humanizing Data</br> We aim also to bring perspectives of history, culture, and public policy into our course. Data is important to research and our course seeks to humanize data through understanding the lived experience of people behind the data. </br></br> Course Resources</br> Course resources will have a mix of articles drawn from journals and newspapers, as well as videos introducing the histories and cultures of world communities studied – for instance how the rural poverty of the Mississippi Delta gave birth to the Blues.</br> Session: Session I Day: M, T, Th Time: 11:10am - 1:40pm Credit Hours: 4 Credits Course Format: Remote Learning Course for Summer 2026 Brandeis Graduation Requirement Fulfilled: SS Enrollment Limit: Course Classification: Undergraduate Level Course Course Tuition: $3,825 Course Fees: None Open to High School Students: Yes |
