CORE COURSES
Take 20 credits from the following courses:
EN-217 Disability in Fiction
This course considers how various texts portray individuals with disabilities. Via short stories, novels, theoretical articles, films, and memoirs we will explore ways that stereotypical portrayals can stigmatize and discriminate against people with disabilities. The class will also examine narratives and voices that question the definition of 'normal' as well as reinterpret traditional representations of disability. We will consider key concepts such as ableism, justice, access, and the medical and social models of disability. The course will also introduce some of the ways that disability intersects with other aspects of identity such as gender, sexuality, race, and class.
3 CreditsH
HS-280 Victorian Science, Sexuality & Medicine
This class is designed to be the entry-level course to the Medical Humanities Secondary Emphasis. This means it will interest pre-health students and is suitable for all first-year students. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate the changing meanings and entanglements of Victorian science and medical practice through the lens of class, gender, and race. We will examine ideas about the body and disease, the changing role of medicine, the importance of new technologies, and the social construction of scientific and medical knowledge.
4 CreditsWK-HT, HPre- or Co-Req: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.
HS-313 Disease, Medicine & Empire
What can the study of the history of medicine tell us about the nature of rule and the politics of race in European empires? How did medical theories of disease and healing shape ideas about colonial environments, populations, bodies, and racial differences in the imaginations of European colonizers? How did medicine and science function as tools of colonial domination and as part of broader "civilizing" projects, and what were the limits of such efforts at social control? Can the study of medical reforms and everyday life shed light on how colonial subjects conceptualized, challenged, and defined their own positions in the social order?
4 CreditsCA, I, H, SW-GE, CTGESPre- or Co-Requisite: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.
HS-314 Medieval Medicine
Despite our popular understanding of the European middle ages as a dirty, disease-ridden, hopelessly backward period, the sources show us quite a different picture. Although a lack of understanding of the means of genetic change and the cause of viral and bacterial disease caused medieval people to understand the human body very differently than we do, that system was not without its logic and efficacy. This course will explore the human body and its diseases in the middle ages through a series of connected readings that introduce the body as a conceptual system and medieval science's attempts to understand it. We will then look at the growing field of genomic research as a way of understanding and comparing our modern systems of understanding the body.
4 CreditsH, CW, SW-GE,CTGESPre- or Co-Requisite: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.
HS-317 Medicine in World War I
The class will explore the challenges faced by medical professionals during the First World War by looking at the medical innovations that emerged over the course of the war; the impact of violence, disease, and dislocation on civilian populations; and the enduring changes in medical practices following the war.
4 CreditsSW-ERPrerequisite: FYC-101
BI-270 Infectious Disease & Society
This course focuses primarily on the impact of ten human infectious diseases that have changed the world. Each disease is analyzed from five distinct perspectives: Clinical, Historical, Economic, Artistic, and Public Health. We also discuss genomics aspects of the infective organisms and of their human hosts. Pre- or co-requisite: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109
3 CreditsCA,N,WK-SP,CTGES
PL-106 Introduction to Ethics
Examines the historically valid ethical approaches to problems, i.e., pragmatic, relativistic, and absolute, and the application of such methods to contemporary ethical dilemmas, e.g., abortion, terrorism, euthanasia, and capital punishment.
4 CreditsH,SW-ER
PL-235 Ethics of Health Care
This course is a seminar-style course in 'professional ethics'. It will explore the various codes, value assumptions, and dilemmas faced by those who practice the health care professions. Specific topics (or dilemmas) will be determined by each class, based upon the specific POEs of the enrolled students.
4 CreditsH,SW-ERPre-req or co-req: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109
CONN-303 Genomics, Ethics, and Society
The purpose of this course will be to gain an understanding of the science behind the genome project and develop an understanding how ethical norms are established and challenged. Students will discuss and debate the potential implications of this new technology for them as individuals and for society in general. NOTE: Students are expected to be in their third or fourth year when taking a Connections course.
4 CreditsCONN,IC,CTGES
CM-310 Understanding Health Inequity
In this class, students will learn how to read, understand, and conduct social research about individuals and systems that create disparity in health care and outcomes. The research that we will read and learn to conduct will rely on texts and stories rather than numbers and statistics. The class will address questions such as: what conditions are present that allow some populations greater access to health care than others? What social problems underlie the disparities in health outcomes for women, people of color, and people from low-income backgrounds. Students will gather and analyze their own research data.
3 CreditsS, WK-SIPre-Req or Co-Req: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109
Secondary Emphasis Credit Total = 20
Six credits must be at the 300/400-level. Any course exception must be approved by the advisor and/or department chair.