Art of Cutting

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This class will explore what anthropology can teach us about surgery, such as surgical processes, variability, and outcomes, as well as what these topics can in turn teach us about broader social issues. Questions to be addressed in class will include the history of surgery, what is surgery, how are surgeons trained, how does surgical practice vary across cultures and time-periods, outcomes and impacts of surgery, the impacts of resource scarcity, and dangerous/unnecessary/life-saving surgeries. Students will engage in questions about the aesthetics of scars, physician and patient decision-making, and how patient background (race, gender, class, identity) impacts access, experience, and outcomes. Types of surgery to be explored will include, plastic surgery, cesarean section, fistulas, organ donation, among others.