The Trouble with Normal

3 credit hours · Undergraduate

Students examine the history of the body, with particular attention to changing ideals of beauty, constructions of disability, the medicalization of the body, the gendered body, and other topics. The primary focus is on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as historicizing contemporary ideas of healthy bodies, disablement, and bodily practices. The focus will be primarily on North America, although comparative perspectives will be taken from time to time.