SOCI 398

The topic for 2026-2027 is Spaces and Places of Mental Health Care. This course critically examines how mental health care is practiced and contested across institutional and community settings, focusing on the spaces and places where care occurs. Through critical social theory and ethnographic research, students will explore how social stratification along axes of class, race, gender, sexual identity, disability, and migration shapes care realities, relationships, and experiences. The course also considers the historical, economic, and cultural contexts that influence mental health care. Students will investigate how mental health is constructed and governed, and how individuals and communities use agency and resistance to challenge dominant structures and advocate for more inclusive care.