Doing the History of Death and Disease

Catalog description

Does death have a history? In dealing with the past, all historians inevitably deal with the dead. Yet few historians primarily engage with the meaning of death, disease, and sickness to individuals, communities, and societies. In this class, we will explore how historians have theorized sickness, health, and death in the United States and greater Atlantic World. Topics include: the shifting burden and social meanings of disease; how sickness has impacted individuals' sense of citizenship, religion, identity, and the law; the impact of epidemics/pandemics on the size and shape of government and empire; the economics of the medical profession, hospitals, insurance, and biotech industries; the history of race, gender, and the body; the changing doctor patient-relationship; how mass-casualty events like war create cultural shifts; the politics of immunity and vaccination; and why illness and death is so hard to write about evocatively. The 200-series "Doing History" requirement offers students an intellectual bridge between Sources & Methods courses and 209S. Treating a specific subfield within history as the focal point, these courses will explore how each subfield emerged, how it engages with allied fields outside of History, and how it has changed over time. Students will gain deep familiarity with the primary theoretical frameworks deployed by scholars working in this area as well as the intellectual impetus these scholars articulate to legitimize their inquiries. In learning more about the inner workings, or "backstage," of the discipline students will gain insight into how to ask historical questions and shape historical problems. Ultimately, the course will offer opportunities to reflect on what it means to think historically, to ask historical questions, and to produce historical knowledge.