Current Courses

Most courses are open to medical students. For more information, please get in touch with the individual faculty

Fall 2007 | Spring 2008

Fall 2007

Undergraduate Courses

HSHM 205a, ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS IN AMERICAN CULTURE. David Musto, TTh 10:30-11:20

The interrelation of alcohol and other drugs since the establishment of the nation. Consideration of scientific, religious, legal, literary, gender, and minority aspects. Also HIST 175a/AMST 323a

HSHM 215a, PUBLIC HEALTH IN AMERICA, 1793-2000. Naomi Rogers, MW 10:30-11:20

A survey of public health in America from the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 to AIDS and breast cancer activism at the end of the past century. Focusing on medicine and the state, topics include quarantines, medical and social welfare failures and successes, the experiences of healers and patients, and organized medicine and its critics. Also HIST 140a

HSHM 328a or b, METHODS AND LITERATURE IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE.
328a: T 9:30-11:20 Bruno Strasser
328b: W 7:00–9:00 p.m. Ole Molvig

Introduction to recent literature in the history of science, medicine, and public health, to historiographic issues, and to methods used in historical research and writing. Members of the faculty in the Program in the History of Science and Medicine visit on a rotating basis to introduce the variety of approaches to the field. (Formerly HSHM 428a or b) Also HIST 440a or b

HSHM 410a, INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION. David Miller, W 3:30-5:30

A study of the philosophical developments in early modern Europe that resulted in the emergence of modern science. Topics will include the intellectual traditions leading to the period, such as Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Scholasticism, as well as the work of particular authors during the period, such as Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. Also HUMS 326a/HIST 446a

HSHM 435a, HEART DISEASE IN AMERICA. Todd Olszewski, W 2:30-4:20

Heart disease was the leading cause of death in the United States for much of the twentieth century, confounding the medical community and the American public alike. This course traces the emergence of the heart disease “epidemic” in twentieth century America and examines the fascination with heart disease and the heart in American culture. Also HIST 447a

HSHM 450a, CHILDREN’S HEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES, 1800-2000. Cynthia Connolly, T 3:30 – 5:20

This seminar draws on primary and secondary sources to consider major themes and events regarding the history of children’s health care (broadly defined to include not just physical and emotional health but also cognitive and social development) in the United States. Also HIST 450a

Undergraduate/Graduate Courses

HSHM 277a/HSHM 677a, GENETICS, REPRODUCTION, & SOCIETY. Daniel Kevles, MW 11:30-12:20

A history of the interplay of modern biology with its social, economic, legal, and cultural context. Lecture topics include eugenics and sterilization, the Scopes trial, contraception and abortion, the new reproductive technologies, medical genetics, the human genome project, and human cloning. A two-hour graduate discussion section will emphasize the development of genetics, molecular biology, and biotechnology. Also HIST 177a/HIST 939a/AMST 170a/AMST 880a

HSHM 433a/HSHM 637a, RACE AND MEDICINE IN AMERICA 1800-2006. Susan Lederer, T 1:30-3:20

An examination of the history of race and medicine in the United States, primarily but not exclusively focused on African Americans’ encounters with the health care system. Topics include slavery and health; doctors, immigrants, and epidemics; the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the use of minorities as research subjects; and race and genetic disease. Also HIST 441a/HIST 761a/AFAM 424a/AMST 407a/AMST 883a/ WGSS 725a

Graduate Courses

HSHM 701a, INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Susan Lederer, M 1:30-3:20

An examination of the variety of approaches to the social and cultural history of medicine and public health. Readings are drawn from recent literature in the field, sampling writings on health care, illness experiences, and medical cultures in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia from antiquity to the twentieth century. Topics include the role of gender, class, ethnicity, race, region, and religion in the experience of health care and sickness; the intersection of lay and professional understandings of the body; and the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations. Also HIST 930a

HSHM 732a, INFECTION, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND THE STATE. Frank Snowden, Th 3:30-5:20

This course will be a comparative examination of public health strategies adopted by western nations since 1800 with regard to high impact infectious diseases—cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, polio, and HIV/AIDS. The course will begin with “plague regulations” and will then explore such alternative policies as vaccination, the sanatorium, the sanitation idea, the regulation of prostitution, health education, and the reporting and tracing of cases. Attention will also be given to state planning to confront the threat of bioterrorism and to the present emergency in sub-Saharan Africa of malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS. The class will consider the strategies of the World Health Organization and of national governments to confront the crisis. The course is a reading and discussion class, but it can be taken as a research seminar with the permission of the instructor. There are no prerequisites, and no prior knowledge will be assumed. Also HIST 928a

HSHM 740a, THE CULTURES OF AMERICAN MEDICINE SINCE 1800. John Harley Warner, T 1:30-3:20

Reading and discussion of recent scholarly literature on medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth century U.S. Themes include the moral, social, political, aesthetic, and epistemological grounding of orthodox and alternative cultural authority; the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations; gender, ethnicity, race, religion, class, and region in the construction and management of illness and in the production and circulation of medical beliefs; interplay between lay and professional understandings of the body; nationalism, citizenship, and colonialism; and representations of medical institutions, practitioners, and practices in visual media, including film. May be taken as a research seminar with permission of the instructor. Also HIST 925a/AMST 884a

Spring, 2008

Undergraduate Courses

HSHM 005b, MEDICINE AND SOCIETY IN AMERICAN HISTORY. Rebecca Tannenbaum, TTh 1:30-2:45

Consideration of disease and healing in American history from colonial times to the present. Topics include the changing role of the physician, alternative healers and therapies, and the social impact of epidemics from smallpox to AIDS

Enrollment limited to freshmen. Also HIST 006b

HSHM 413b, X-RAY VISIONS: MEDICAL IMAGING SINCE 1895. Bettyann Kevles, T 1:30-3:20

An examination of the development of X rays, CT, MRI, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine. Tehir impact on diagnostic medicine, the legal system, and culture (high and low). Topics include the nature of invention—how new technologies appear; the economics of medicine in relation to technology; the role of warfare in invention; and the impact of these technologies on the arts. Also HIST 445b

HSHM 445b, WOMEN AND MEDICINE IN AMERICA FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO THE PRESENT. Naomi Rogers, T 9:30-11:20

American women from the colonial era to the present as midwives, patients, healers, reformers, revolutionaries, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Ways that women have shaped American health care and medical research. Also HIST 442b/WGSS 453b

Undergraduate/Graduate Courses

HSHM 210b/HSHM 670b, MAGIC BULLETS AND WONDER PILLS. Bruno Strasser, MW 11:30-12:20

This course explores the history of pharmaceutical drugs from the 19 th century to the present. It covers the biographies of selected drugs (e.g. vaccines, vitamins, antibiotics, and steroids), the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, the modes of drug innovation, and broader social, political and cultural issues. It will show how the development of drugs reflects changes in the relationships between academia, industry and the state; the laboratory, the clinic and the market; the physician, the patient, and the consumer. Also HIST 190b/HIST 918b

HSHM 321b/HSHM 631b, THE CULTURES OF WESTERN MEDICINE: A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. John HarleyWarner, MW 10:30-11:20

A survey of medical thought, practice, institutions, and practitioners from classical antiquity to the present. Changing concepts of health and disease in Europe and America explored in their social, cultural, economic, scientific, technological, and ethical contexts. Also HIST 233b/HIST 937b

HSHM 421b/HSHM 633b, INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS: CERTAINTY, UNCERTAINTY, AND THE INFINITE. William Summers, Th 1:30-3:20

This seminar course will consider the history of several mathematical topics from antiquity until the present time. The course will NOT be a mathematics course, but rather will treat mathematics as examples of intellectual problems rather than technical accomplishments. The graduate students in this seminar will be required to complete more extensive research papers, both at midterm and at the end of the course than the undergraduates. These papers will be evaluated at a significantly more stringent level in terms of both research methods and analytical sophistication than the undergraduate written work. Also HIST 448b/HIST 916b

HSHM 451b/HSHM 635b, SCIENCE, ARMS, & THE STATE. Daniel Kevles, M 1:30-3:20

A history of chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons in the twentieth century that focuses on the integration in the United States of national security policymaking, scientific research, and military innovation, including its consequences for the scientific community, the civilian economy, public attitudes towards weapons of mass destruction, and political movements to control them. Also HIST 444b/HIST 945b

Graduate Courses

HSHM 676b, THE ENGINEERING & OWNERSHIP OF LIFE. Daniel Kevles, W 1:30-3:20

This seminar explores the historical development of intellectual property protection in living matter. Focusing on the United States in world context, it examines arrangements outside the patent system as well as within it. Topics include agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, and law. May be taken as a readings or research course. Also HIST 938b, LAW 20332

HSHM 702b, INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE. Ole Molvig, W 12:30-2:20

Study of secondary literature, recent and older, in the history of the physical and life sciences from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Students acquire familiarity both with the road map of the development of science in general and of its major branches over this period, and an acquaintance with various approaches that historians have followed in interpreting these events. Also HIST 931b

HSHM 710b, METHODS FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE. Bruno Strasser, T 1.30-3.20

Exploration of the methods and debates in the social studies of science, technology, and medicine. This course covers the history of the field and its current intellectual, social, and political positioning. It emphasizes the debates on constructivism and relativism, and provides critical tools to address the relationships among, science, technology, medicine, and society. Also HIST 921b