A HISTORY OF DISEASE
What is disease? Who decides? What are the consequences of labeling a behavior a disease? Can disease be a tool of liberation? Can disease be an instrument of oppression? How do race, class, and gender affect our understandings of and experiences with illness? How have diseases shaped American history? Illustrates the various ways disease operates in America and examines the role of disease on at least four levels--political, social, cultural, and personal--to demonstrate that diseases are not merely bodily afflictions; they are also participants in the body politic. Each disease covered is chosen to illustrate a different point about the social and cultural lives of disease in the history of the United States. Though diseases are covered in a chronological fashion, this coverage is not meant as a narrative history of disease.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities Level - Advanced L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2023 Learning Outcomes: 1. Recognize how diseases and responses to diseases have shaped elements of American society and analyze the claim that disease is socially constructed Audience: Undergraduate 2. Discover and analyze how politics and diseases have intersected in American history Audience: Undergraduate 3. Describe and analyze how patients have shaped the medical responses, personal reactions and social meanings of disease Audience: Undergraduate 4. Recognize and describe how race, class, and gender have influenced the experience, meaning, and understanding of disease Audience: Undergraduate 5. Develop research skills to perform primary source historical research and analyze primary sources to develop a historical argument Audience: Undergraduate 6. Recognize and describe general trends in the history and the historiography of disease Audience: Graduate 7. Write a book review suitable for publication in historical journals Audience: Graduate 8. Identify and analyze historical arguments in historical monographs Audience: Graduate 9. Sharpen historical research skills and deepen analysis of primary sources in the service of an argument Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Recognize how diseases and responses to diseases have shaped elements of American society and analyze the claim that disease is socially constructed Audience: Undergraduate 2. Discover and analyze how politics and diseases have intersected in American history Audience: Undergraduate 3. Describe and analyze how patients have shaped the medical responses, personal reactions and social meanings of disease Audience: Undergraduate 4. Recognize and describe how race, class, and gender have influenced the experience, meaning, and understanding of disease Audience: Undergraduate 5. Develop research skills to perform primary source historical research and analyze primary sources to develop a historical argument Audience: Undergraduate 6. Recognize and describe general trends in the history and the historiography of disease Audience: Graduate 7. Write a book review suitable for publication in historical journals Audience: Graduate 8. Identify and analyze historical arguments in historical monographs Audience: Graduate 9. Sharpen historical research skills and deepen analysis of primary sources in the service of an argument Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027