The Disease and Culture concentration is where students with a strong interest in the medical humanities or social sciences will be able to pursue their interests to the fullest. Not all knowledge about the body, health, disease, and illness is scientific--there are numerous ways of knowing. The Disease and Culture concentration invites students with a desire to explore religious, literary, art and design, and multi-cultural perspectives and experiences with healthcare. Students with a strong interest in medical anthropology or sociology will also find room in this concentration to learn, grow, and challenge themselves to see the world through different lenses. 

The following list of pre-approved courses is intended to inspire, not to require.  This list suggests some of the courses which have been used in the past for the concentration and which can  individualize the concentration around a student's interests and goals.

 

Concentration Rules

  • Relevant courses may be petitioned
  • Up to three non-College courses* are permitted 

Concentration electives (Select 6 of these and/or petitioned equivalents)

AFRC 1202: Spirit Possession in the Caribbean
ANTH 1238: Intro to Medical Anthropology
ANTH 2440: Disease and Human Evolution
ANTH 2060: Cultures of Science and Technology
ANTH 2332: Medicine and the Language of Pain
ANTH 3052: An Anthropological Approach to Bioethics
ANTH 3215: Archeology of Animals
BIOL 2510: Statisics for Biologists
BIOL 4430: Evolution and Ecology of Infectious Diseases
CLST 3505: Greek and Roman Medicine
ENGL 0070: Literature and Medicine
ENGL 2530: Literature and Medicine
ENGL 3423: Planet on the Brink: Climate and Environment Journalism
ENVS 1625: Community Based Environmental Health
GRMN 1010: Freud
GSWS 3448: The Future of Disability and the Afterlives of Epidemics (HSOC 3447)
HIST 1365: Bacteria, Bodies, and Empires: Medicine and Healing in the Eastern Mediterranean (HSOC 1362)
HSOC 1120: Science Technology & War (STSC 1120)
HSOC 1312: Mental Illness (SOCI 1111)
HSOC 2457: History of Bioethics
HSOC 2303: Fundamentals of Epidemiology
HSOC 2304: Insect Epidemiology: Pests, Pollinators, and Disease Vectors (STSC 2304)
HSOC 2401: Social Determinants of Health
HSOC 2421: Manufacturing Minds: From Babbage to ChatGPT (STSC 2421)
HSOC 2457: History of Bioethics
HSOC 3028: Normal People (STSC 3028)
HSOC 3327: Birth Culture and Medical Technology
NURS 3130: Obesity and Society*
NURS 3150: Sociocultural Influences on Health*
NURS 3430: Topics Course (check with HSOC advisor)*
RELS 2390: Death, Disease and Demons in the Medieval World
SOCI 0006: Anxious Times: Social Change and Fear 
SOCI 2220: Health of Populations (HSOC 2202)
SOCI 2450: Poverty, Race and Health
SOCI 2460: Media, Culture, and Society in Contemporary China
STAT 1110: Introductory Statistics
STSC 2018: Science in the Public
STSC 2080: Science and Religion
STSC 3247: Why Not Magic? Magic, Esoterica, and the Occult in the History of Science
URBS 2450: Poverty, Race and Health

 

ONE of these may be used in the concentration:

ENVS 1615/1635/1645

 

Updated 06/07/2023