Classes with HAPPY Initiative
One of our program objectives is to offer students from all of Yale’s schools and colleges a thought-provoking and unique lens into public health challenges and their solutions through innovative courses and events leveraging Yale’s renowned arts and humanities departments.
Current Courses
CDE 570: Humanities, Arts, and Public Health
Instructor: Judith Lichtman, PhD, MPH
The Humanities, Arts, and Public Health course is the foundation HAPPY Initiative course which explores the diversification of public health through an interaction with humanities and the arts in public health practice. Led by Dr. Lichtman, this course combines the expertise of professionals and faculty at Yale University and the vast resources available at Yale and our libraries and museums.
Featuring guest lecturers and the work of artists in various disciplines from across the country, this course explores different methodologies for incorporating and assessing the impact of humanities and the arts in public health and health justice affecting the community at large. Open to disciplines across the University, students come to understand the importance of self-reflection and responsible artistic practice and the importance of impact assessment. This understanding culminates in the design of a hands-on project which reflects the integration of arts, humanities and public health practice across the United States.
CDE 538: Soda Politics: How the Soft Drink Industry Profoundly Influences Social Policy Around the World
Instructor: Neal Baer, MD
Physician, television producer, and writer Neal Baer show students how stories affect public health. The course is based on the book “Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (And Winning),” which Baer pitched to author Marion Nestle (and later wrote the afterward for). In the class, he and his students examined how soda, a product made from inexpensive ingredients, became a multibillion-dollar industry and how it has affected public health along the way. Learn more about Soda Politics.