Mar 29, 2024  
2013-2014 Academic Catalog 
    
2013-2014 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIS 295-02 - Special Topic: The History of Medicine

4 credits (Fall)
This course examines the history of medicine in America from the colonial period through the late twentieth century, exploring the rise of American medicine in a global context and the emergence of the medical profession we know today. We will consider the constructed meanings of disease and health, including how cultural definitions of race and gender as well as economic, political, and professional agendas influenced medicine and medical practice. In doing so, students will begin to understand how “regular” doctors marginalized other healers in their quest to gain full authority over the health of the country. At the same time, this course will analyze the larger implications of this, especially on groups whose health care did not seem to be the utmost priority for a profession whose main objective was to “do no harm.”

Prerequisite: HIS 100  or second-year standing.
Instructor: Lewis