Disease and the American Experience

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This class is about widespread illness, its mitigation, and the consequences of both. We deal with how populations are defined socially, economically, and politically and trace out the interventions that are made to preserve populations. We also contemplate the pandemic's pariahs; those who get blamed, excluded, and persecuted in times of plague. This class analyzes medicine as power; specifically, Michel Foucault's description of biopower (making live and letting die). A major source of reflection and analysis will be the instructor's experience nursing during the first and second COVID-19 surges in New York City. We will analyze film, documentary, podcast, literature, and medical science. In short, we will study theories, practices, and stories of healing.