Dr. Sabik teaches core and elective courses she designed for the Health Studies major

HLT 200: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health Studies

This course provides students with a foundation for the interdisciplinary study of health. In the course we focus on the historical and philosophical basis of health studies, current approaches to the study of health, integrating interdisciplinary perspectives to investigate current health issues, career pathways for health studies majors, and literature in the area of interdisciplinary health studies. Each week we’ll utilize online discussions to critique and discuss various issues, analyze readings and other media, and/or evaluate materials related to the study of health from interdisciplinary perspectives, including pubic health, research ethics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, global health, environmental health, and health policy. Students create health communication documents (fact sheets and infographics) to organize and convey the research they review in the course. 

HLT 312: Intersecting Social Identities and Health

This course examines how identities, social roles, and social categories (i.e., race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) affect health from an interdisciplinary perspective. In the course we focus on how health and well-being have been defined for different social groups, and how social identities impact individuals psychological well-being and health. We examine how identity, self-perceptions, and health differ between social groups, and how different social identities and social contexts shape one’s health and well-being. Finally, we examine how social identities intersect in different contexts by focusing on how individuals relate differently to the media, experiences of discrimination, and resistance to oppressive messages about identity and health. 

HLT 313: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Burnout

Burnout is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” and rates of burnout are on the rise across all adult age groups. However, few solutions have emerged to effectively treat burnout. In this course students learn to identify the causes and consequences of burnout and chronic stress by examining this issue from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The course integrates work from fields such as epidemiology, health psychology, organizational psychology, neuroscience, public health, nursing, economics, sociology, and gender studies to understand A) how burnout is characterized and defined by different fields, B) what causes burnout, C) who is affected by burnout, D) how context and social location influence burnout, D) how burnout and chronic stress affects mental and physical health, and E) effective prevention and treatment of burnout. The course guides students through foundational works and will evaluate evidence-based research addressing burnout. Students reflect on existing work and will apply these concepts to their own experiences by developing a proposal to address burnout in their chosen field.