Global Medicine and Technology

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course examines the innovation, dissemination and adoption of medical technologies in a global context. Using an anthropological lens and drawing from ethnographic research, we will consider medical technologies as assemblages of transnational scientific expertise, global capital, and bioethical standards that are shaped by culturally distinct and socially unequal global and local contexts. Students will learn analytical concepts such as global assemblages; biological/therapeutic citizenship; bioavailability/relationships among race, gender, class, nationality and medical research and technology; pharmaceutical governance; the routinzation of medical technology; and critical analyses of bioethics. Technologies to be explored include organ transplants; assisted reproductive technologies; genetic engineering; pharmaceuticals and clinical trials; biological cell research; and the emergence of global health science. We will consider how these technologies are produced, flow and practiced across the globe. This course will be of interest to students in Science, Technology and International Affairs; Global and Public Health; Asian Studies; and Anthropology. This is an advanced seminar-style course. Restrictions: N/A