History of Global Health

Catalog description

The course begins with the development of ancient medicine in Europe & China, and continues into the rise of biomedicine (e.g. laboratory science & microbiology) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular diseases illustrate important themes, such as the role of warfare in medical developments, the creation of international policy to control disease, and how non-Western societies intersected biomedicine. We trace global circulations of people and commodities to show how international agencies, charities and governing bodies have spread both disease and the means to fight it. Medicine has always been a global undertaking, and its history prepares us to address emerging health crises.