Science, Medicine and the Body

This seminar course explores the relationship between science, medicine, and the body in a historical context. We will look at this relationship from a global perspective, with particular attention to understandings of gender, sexuality, race, and embodiment. To ground ourselves in the historiography, we will begin by studying various methodologies and approaches to histories of science, medicine, and the body. In doing so, we will consider the following questions: What does it mean to do a history of the body? Is there a universal concept of “the body” to study? What gets included in the history of science? What constitutes medicine? And who gets to determine these definitions? We will then move to specific themes and topics, including the categorization of bodies, dissection, public health, the impacts of colonialism, the medical marketplace, patients and practitioners, healing spaces, and disability studies. The course closes be critically examining global health initiatives and the politics and intimacies of healthcare on a global scale