Program Overview

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Health, Science, Medicine (HIST*6570)

Course Details

The course code for Health, Science, Medicine is HIST*6570, with section 01, offered during the Fall 2019 term. The course instructor is Tara Abraham.

Course Synopsis

This course focuses on the history of medicine, health, and disease through a close examination of the themes that have shaped the history of medicine as a field. The primary focus will be on examples covering the American context. The course will examine the changing ways in which historians have told the story of medicine, from triumphalist narratives of institutional and scientific progress, to stories that recover the voices of patients and highlight the complex relations between medicine, society, and culture. Topics will include patient histories, scientific medicine, the rise of the hospital system, professionalization, medicine and politics, public health, and the ways in which gender, race, and class intersect with medicine, health, and disease. Students will be evaluated according to seminar discussions and presentations, a peer review, and a historiographical essay. Prior experience in the history of science and/or medicine is not necessary for success in this course.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have learned to:

• Master the historiography of modern American medicine and its key issues
• Master skills in analyzing and discussing scholarship in the history of medicine
• Master skills in writing historiographical work
• Master skills in the process of peer review

Method of Evaluation and Weights

The method of evaluation includes:

• Participation: 30%
• Seminar Presentation 1: 10%
• Seminar Presentation 2: 10%
• Essay Presentation: 10%
• Peer Review: 5%
• Historiographical Essay: 35%

Texts Required

A set of electronic readings is available through the University of Guelph Course Reserves System.

Departments and Schools

The course is associated with the following departments and schools:

• School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing
• School of Fine Art and Music
• School of Languages and Literatures
• Department of History
• Department of Philosophy
• Interdisciplinary Programs

Centres, Institutes and Labs

The university is home to several centres, institutes, and labs, including:

• Centre for Scottish Studies
• Grounded and Engaged Theory Lab (GET)
• Interdisciplinary Design Lab
• The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
• The Humanities Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lab (THINC)
• The School of Fine Art & Music Print Study Collection