Capitalism: Theorizing economy in sci & med

Catalog description

What are the relationships between capitalism and the practice and experience and experience of medicine? How have historians and anthropologists theorized capitalism and political economy in accounts of health and medicine? What do such theories account for and what is foreclosed? This research seminar examines theories of capitaliem as they are taken up in historical and ethnographic accounts of science, health, healing, and medicine. Exploring how contemporary and classic accounts have sought to analyze and unpack the relationship between economy and health, we will examine how political economic approaches to health and medicine have informed historical and ethnographic accounts of health and illness -- asking, for instance, how theories of neoliberalism have been used to explain health inequalities (and vice versa) -- and will analyze how scholars have linked practices of financialization, speculation, and investment to changing dynamics of health, medicine, healing, and the generation of medical knowledge. Course time will also be devoted to independent research through which students will develop and write up a research paper on an area of interest related to the course theme.