- The History of Medicine, Health, and Healing

Catalog description

This course offers a survey of the history of medical theory, practice, and institutions. We will learn about changing understandings of health and disease, track the formation of the medical profession, and discuss the development of medical technologies. At the same time, we will explore historical efforts to reform medicine in the name of anti-racism, gender equality, disability rights, and social justice. By studying these complex histories, we will ask questions about the relationship between health, power, bodies, and knowledge. While this course focuses primarily on the history of medicine in Europe and the United States, we will occasionally touch upon non-Western models of the body and historical encounters between Western and non-Western approaches to health and healing.