MHS 115F: Medicine, Health, and the Body
Instructor: Marian McBay, PhD
This course explores the way that medicine shapes our understanding of health and the body in contemporary American society. Focusing on medicine as both science and social phenomenon, we will investigate several interrelated questions: How does medicine classify the body as sick or healthy? How, conversely, do individual and collective experiences of health and disease influence medical theory and practice? How does medicine affect the way we interact with both sick and healthy bodies (including our own)? And how do social and cultural factors influence medicine’s potential impact on health and the body? Meeting time: TR, 4:00-5:15
MHS 201: Fundamental Issues in Medicine, Health, and Society
Instructor: David Boyd
A multidisciplinary introduction to the study of medicine, health, and society, drawing on the perspectives of anthropology, economics, history, literature, political science and policy studies, philosophy, religious studies, and sociology. Guest lectures by representatives of the various disciplines. Meeting time: TR, 11:00-12:15
MHS 205: Medicine and Literature
Instructor: Marian McBay, PhD
This is one of our core courses: Examines the role of narrative in medicine, health, and healing. Readings and discussions will focus on what insights literature and the creative arts can bring to our understanding of medicine, bioethics, and the human condition. Areas to be covered include: doctor-patient relationship; metaphors of illness; stigmatization and suffering; individuals and communities in global contexts; epidemics; and medical experimentation. Meeting time: TR, 11:00-12:15
MHS 220: Narrative Medicine: Stories of Illness and the Doctor-Patient Relationship
Instructor: Scott Pearson, M.D. (Division of Surgical Oncology)
As the field of medicine becomes increasingly technology driven and information rich, doctors are finding it harder to listen to and respond to their patients. As a result, patients feel less understood and have begun to devalue the clinical experience. In response to this dilemma, medical schools are beginning to train students in the field of literature in programs known as Narrative Medicine. The premise of such an approach is that through close attention to patients’ stories, physicians will learn to appreciate the experiences of their patients. In this course, we will dissect the doctor-patient relationship as illustrated by illness narratives and other literary works. Meeting time: T, 1:10-3:40
MHS 290-01: Controversies in Modern Medicine
Instructor: Frank Boehm, MD
Deals with political, ethical and medical issues that have caused considerable debate in our country. Issues such as the medically uninsured, patient safety, minority disparity outcome, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, medical malpractice and nursing shortages are just a few of the controversies that will be discussed and debated. Meeting time: M, 1:10-3:40
MHS 290-02: Ethics and Public Health
Instructor: Elizabeth Heitman, PhD
This course is a systematic overview of the major ethical issues in public health practice and policy. It examines the history and ethical commitments of public health and specific ethical problems in epidemiology and the definition of health problems, health promotion and disease prevention, occupational health, risk assessment and environmental hazards, research with human beings, and health disparities. No previous courses in ethics required. Meeting time: T, 1:10-3:40 Note: will count for MHS core credit.
MHS 290-03: Community Health Research
Instructor: Barbara Clinton
Students will design or implement strategies to address community health needs. Working with community mentors, the students will identify unmet community health needs, learn how non-profit organizations address these needs, and provide tools and solutions to enhance community health. Requires instructor approval. Meeting time: R, 1:10-3:40
MHS 290-04: Early Medicine and Culture: Aristotle to Enlightenment
Instructor: Holly Tucker, PhD
This course will count as a core for students who have not yet taken History 280 (Modern Medicine) or History 282 (Chinese Medicine), and as an elective for those who have. Bloodletting, dissection, and surgery before anesthesia and antisepsis: What were the major questions surrounding health, healing and the human body from the Greeks to the late eighteenth century? Topics to include anatomy, physiology, childbirth and embryology, pharmacology, surgery, blood transfusion, and other healing practices in their cultural contexts. Meeting time: MWF, 2:10-3:00 Note: will count for MHS core credit.
MHS 290-05: HIV/AIDS in the Global Community
Instructor: JuLeigh Petty
Explores the medical, cultural, social, political, economic, and public policy dimensions of HIV/AIDS on a global level. It focuses upon HIV prevention and treatment strategies, social stigma and discrimination and the influence of HIV/AIDS on other aspects of society and culture. Meeting time: MWF, 11:10-12
MHS 295-01: Epidemics and Society
Instructor: JuLeigh Petty
Research seminar: Explores how diseases and societies interact to produce epidemics. Examines historical cases of epidemics using a combination of biological information and social analysis. Meeting time: W, 1:10-3:00
MHS 295-02: Medicine, Religion, and Spirituality
Instructor: Marian McBay, PhD
Research seminar: Explores the relationship between medicine and religion, and how that relationship affects individuals, families and communities as they deal with such life events as birth, serious illness, injury, disability, epidemics, war and death. Sources include fiction, poetry, drama, film, and medical texts. Meeting time: W, 3:10-5:00
