Berkeley Center for Social Medicine

Background image: A collage of books and publications by affiliates of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine

The Berkeley Center for Social Medicine critically engages the intersection of social systems, social difference, health and health care in the United States and across the globe.

Founded in 2013, the Center links to the discipline of social medicine internationally by bringing together Bay Area scholars from the social and historical sciences who are working on questions related to medicine, the health sciences, public health, global health, the social structuring of suffering, violence and the body.

Berkeley Center for Social Medicine News

Discrimination and Disadvantage in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptakes

March 9, 2023

Alein Haro-Ramos, graduate student affiliate of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, is first author of a new article in AJPM Focus. In this article, the authors analyze how social disadvantage, but not self-reported racial discrimination, explained...Read more about Discrimination and Disadvantage in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptakes

Apathy and the Winter Surge of COVID

February 7, 2023

Denise Herd, Berkeley Center for Social Medicine faculty affiliate, is quoted in this SF Chronicle article discussing the increase in...Read more about Apathy and the Winter Surge of COVID

The Everyday Innovation of People with Disabilities in Spaces and Products

January 19, 2023

The PBS NewsHour featured the UC Berkeley Disability Lab, led by Karen Nakamura, faculty affiliate of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine. The lab examines how making tools, modifying existing ones, and reimagining environments in order to navigate spaces and use...Read more about The Everyday Innovation of People with Disabilities in Spaces and Products

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues