Issues in the History of Art and Medicine

Catalog description

This course will explore issues at the intersection of art and medicine, with particular consideration of environmental equity and social justice surrounding the history of health and the body. Particular attention will be devoted to the long nineteenth century in Britain in the context of industrialization and globalization, with consideration of contemporary resonances and case studies in the United States and other countries. The course will begin with methodological approaches to art in the medical humanities, as well as the critical connections between environmental justice, decolonization, social justice, and health. We will also consider particular ethical concerns that exist in the study of art and medicine surrounding consent and the body. The course will then be structured around a series of case studies in thematic groupings, including: food and nutrition, reproductive health and sexuality, contagion and contamination, poisons and pollution, poverty and class disparity, physical fitness and exercise, race and the body, disability and ableism, and mental health. The course will incorporate the close study of objects in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as the Dittrick Medical History Center and the Cleveland Clinic. Students will be encouraged to draw connections between class discussions and challenges facing the greater Cleveland community today. Offered as ARTH 345 , ARTH 445 , HUMN 345 , and HUMN 445 .