First Year Seminar - Bacteria, Bodies, and Empires: A Global History of Medicine and Healing

Catalog description

Bacteria, Bodies, and Empires: A Global History of Medicine and Healing is a seminar on the history of medicine from the early modern period to the present. It addresses major issues and questions about bodies, diseases, epidemics, and medical institutions in the context of major historical developments in world history, with a focus on the Global South. The course examines how medicine, knowledge, and practices about diseases and bodies influenced political and social conditions, as well as how sociopolitical changes shaped and transformed people's perceptions of health, life, and the environment. Scholars have frequently examined the history of medicine as a Western practice and with a focus on Western medical traditions. And, medical and healing practices in the history of the Global South are frequently examined through the lens of religion, culture, and race, or, more recently, in relation to modernization and colonization. By situating the history of medical knowledge and practices in world history with an emphasis on Global South, this course introduces readings and research methods to challenge these fixed paradigms and shed light on questions and research agendas that will unearth the encounters, connections, and mobility of bacteria, bodies, and medical methods among various communities across time from Black Death to contemporary pandemics.