In Sickness and In Health

This program incorporates Greener Foundations. Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s 2-quarter introductory student success course, which provides all first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. First year students will get 14-credits from this program, and 2-credits from a Greener Foundations course.

Becoming seriously ill is a call for stories. - Arthur Frank, The Wounded Storyteller

In this foundational (first year - senior), full-year program, students will explore cultural, social, and psychological approaches to the body and health. Our guiding questions, designed to develop a complex, integrative understanding of well-being, include: 1) How do cultural, social, historical, and economic forces shape experiences of sickness and healing? and 2) How can the social sciences be used to promote flourishing in individuals, relationships, institutions, communities, and societies?

We will cultivate foundational skills that are relevant across all careers and fields of study- observation, note-taking, analysis, researching, speaking, and writing- but that may be particularly helpful in social and human services, health care, and education.

Each quarter will emphasize a different approach to our core questions; students may enter the program during any of the three quarters.

Fall quarter develops social science foundations for understanding sickness and health, with an emphasis on cross cultural, historical, and intersectional feminist understandings. Through the lenses of feminism, medical anthropology, sociology, and history, we will investigate health disparities and inequities both globally and nationally, drawing on the Covid-19 pandemic as a focus of our studies. We will also explore cultural healing traditions through ethnography, literature, and film. An integrated social science exploration of health and well-being will lead us to readings and experiential exercises in areas such as community psychology, narrative psychology, positive psychology, sociology, social psychology, neuroscience, ecotherapy, and contemplative practices. Students who successfully complete fall quarter can anticipate earning the following credits: 4 -Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing; 4 -Medical Anthropology; 4 -Narrative Psychology; 2 -Positive Psychology; 2 Community Psychology.

Fall quarter hybrid studies will include both remote and small-group, in-person instruction. We anticipate approximately 8 hours per week of remote learning, comprised of 4-5 synchronous and 2-3 asynchronous hours.

In person learning will involve one day of seminar, small-group workshops, outdoor studies, and collaborative small-group project work, totaling 5 hours of instruction per week.

Winter quarter emphasizes local experiences of sickness and health, using approaches of community psychology, applied anthropology, and ethnography. Students will study how communities engage in various forms of collaboration, fundraising, organizing, and activism to face challenges to food security, health access, and well-being. As a major part of our work winter quarter, students will develop ethically-based, ethnographically grounded collaborative research projects on well-being on the Evergreen campus. Students who successfully complete winter quarter can anticipate earning the following credits: 4 -Community Psychology; 4-Positive Psychology; 4 -Applied Anthropology; 4 -Ethnography.

Spring quarter supports in-depth independent student research (including capstone-level theses) and internships. Students who successfully complete spring quarter can anticipate earning 16 credits, divided between 1) Advanced Social Science Research and 2) Social Science Practicum: Community Based Learning and Action, depending on individual pathways through the curriculum.