Medicine Politics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Medicine is both art and science, experience and system. Medicine is a way of thinking—heavily mediated by culture and politics. It is a system through which knowledge is produced, workers are organized, and care is delivered. It is also a distributor of technologies, from pharmaceuticals to leg braces. In this course, we grapple with how certain medicines, from biomedicine to traditional medicines, have emerged and influenced the ways in which we experience health and healing. We also discuss how medicine politics frame the ways in which we think about health, access care, and live in the world with illness. Taking a global perspective, we examine multiple medical systems and question where they came from and what they do in the world today? Where are they and how have systems changed? We think about what medicine does well and what shortcomings may emerge that impede wellbeing. In doing so, we explore several case studies to consider: how is medicine produced? How and why is it conceived and enacted differently across contexts? How does it change through time? This course will bring students through a critical history of global medicines, politics, policy, and priorities from the late nineteenth century to the present. In all that we do, we will discuss the science behind certain theories and interventions as well as the technologies that make health interventions impactful. The course will involve deep engagement with classmates, ideas, theory, case studies, and readings in class, on zoom, and out-of-class on canvas.