Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

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.  

The Center brings together faculty and students with expertise in the social sciences of health from across campus and beyond, primarily from the fields of medical anthropology, medical sociology, medical history, and critical public health.  The Center promotes research, interdisciplinary writing and publication, graduate and undergraduate training, as well as conferences, colloquia and other events that engage broad publics.