Race, Ethnicity & Health Disparities
Instructor: Dr. Raquel M. Robvais
Office: Coates Hall 147
Email: rrobva1@lsu.edu
Office Hours: 8:30am-9:30am Monday, 1:30pm-2:30pm Thursday
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Textbooks
Health Disparities, Diversity, and Inclusion: Context, Controversies and Solutions by Patti Rose
Just Medicine: A Cure For Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew
(e-textbook in library)
The Origins of Bioethics: Remembering When Medicine Went Wrong by John A Lynch
The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century by
Nikolas Rose (e-textbook in library)
Class Attendance
This class will meet face to face and online. We will meet face to face on Monday and
Wednesday in class. We will meet online at our regular class time on Friday via Zoom.
Course Overview
This course will introduce students to the relationship between race, ethnicity and health
disparities. It will critically examine the meaning of health and how it is defined and practiced
according to culture. Students will discuss the meaning of health inequalities and why they
exist, exploring further ways to intervene with strategies that promote health equity. Finally
students will explore how health disparities are sometimes a result of poor communication and
the misappropriation of symbols, ultimately affecting how health is understood and lived.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of this course students will be able to:
Identify health disparities and explain factors that contribute to them
Offer strategies that can bring about solutions to health inequalities
Understand how essential communication is to obtaining and maintaining equality of health.
Course Expectations
I expect you to come to class having read the material, ready to discuss and participate. This
class will engage in critical readings, garnering varying perspectives and points of view, please
be respectful of each other as you contribute to the discussion.
Late Work
Assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class unless indicated otherwise. If turned in
after class has started the maximum point value you will receive is one half of the actual total.
Assignments will not be accepted after class has ended. I do not accept assignments through
email. If you miss class with an excused absence, your excuse and the assignment that you
missed must be turned in on the day you return to class if you want to receive credit for the
assignment.
All assignments must be typed.
Participation 50 pts.
This is a reading and discussion class. You are expected to be present and have read the
material that is due on any given day. Participation grade will be based on how actively you
engage in the discussions, how your perspective consistently (or not) evidences having read the
material, how well you interact with the students who are leading the discussion and your
attendance in class.
Daily Notes of Engagement 5pts each
On Monday and Wednesday of each week you will make notes on our readings/viewings for
that date. These should be meaningful notes to you, so they do not need to be especially
formal. Notes can include questions or critical ideas about context or content. Bring your notes
