HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN FILM

HISTSCI/MEDHIST 212

A survey of different conceptions of how the body as a site of sickness has been understood from Antiquity to contemporary medicine. Includes consideration of the origins and evolution of public health, the changing social role of healers, and the emergence of the modern "standardized" body in health and illness.

HISTORY/HISTSCI/MEDHIST 508

Medicine in Europe from the 18th century to mid-20th century, investigating changes in disease and demography, state interest in health care, the medical professions, and both scientific and alternative medical ideas.

ENGL/HISTSCI/MEDHIST 525

Explores how a humanistic perspective can broaden our understanding of health and medicine. Specifically, we will examine the role of language and culture in the creation and circulation of biomedical knowledge; our lived experiences with illness (physical and mental); the intricate intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability and medicine; the political dimensions of diagnosis, disease, and epidemics, and the role that fiction, creative non-fiction, comics, and film play in shaping our experiences with health and medicine as health care providers and as patients. The course does not assume any background in science or medicine. One of our recurrent topics, in fact, will be to consider how non-experts interact with medicine and its technical vocabularies. Although the primary objective of the course is to understand the cultural, social, and political dimensions of health and medicine, a secondary objective is for students to become more savvy patients and, for the few students who might emerge on the other side of the stethoscope one day, more well rounded health care professionals.

HISTSCI 218

Introduction to the development of the modern American medical care system.

HISTSCI/MEDHIST 919

Analyzes the scientific and social aspects of the development of modern medicine and public health in Europe and America.