Health, Humanities, and Culture

Catalog description

Most medical inquiry focuses on narrow issues of disease from within a biomedical framework. It rarely steps back from the particulars to ask larger philosophic questions regarding the goals of medicine and healthcare. In this class we take the opposite strategy to focus on the larger theoretical and philosophical issues in U.S. healthcare. We unpack the underlying concepts and principles that organize contemporary medical research, practice, and education. We look at the strengths and weaknesses of today's dominant models of medicine and we consider the possibilities of alternative conceptual frames. Plus, we consider how much of the administrative and financial problems of today's healthcare crisis can be explained by conceptual and philosophical issues. Our inquiry will be an interdisciplinary approach that draws from medicine, philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, disability studies, cultural studies, poetry, drama, and documentary.