I feel as though I say this about at least one class I take every semester, but I do think that Peggy Carey Best’s CSPL 315: The Health of Communities might be the best class I’ve ever taken. The primary focus of this class was what constitutes health. Who is considered healthy? Who isn’t? What aspects of health are prioritized, and which are ignored? Who are the stakeholders in determining what health is? Why might our health be defined or obscured in different ways?
Looking at stories of imprisoned women, migrants in therapy, experimental healing procedures involving taking pictures of your community, discussions of food as medicine, security as medicine or precarity as illness, the social determinants of health and more, I gained a comprehensive understanding of health and well being that extended far beyond what I ever thought it could. It has transformed how I think about myself & my own health, encouraging me to focus on exercise, outdoor activity, and feelings of security as aspects of my own healthcare, and has encouraged me to get off my SSRIs.
My final project for the class was a 20-page research paper on the topic of an ecological health center, a concept which allowed me to think through alternative, sustainable, and ecologically-minded healing methods. Based on a criticism of a piece we read for class, The Green Health Center by Jessica Peirce and Andrew Jameton, I was able to look at a few examples of what I considered to be radical healthcare. The topics I studied were community gardens, The Black Panther Party’s People’s Free Medical Clinics, and Middletown’s very own Community Health Center, which I have the privilege of working with through the class. You can read the paper below.
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