ATS2829 · People and plagues: Diseases that changed history

Overview

How has illness shaped human history? This unit explores the social history of disease, health and wellness in a variety of chronological and geographical settings. We challenge a triumphalist understanding of medical history as the inexorable march of scientific conquest over pathogens, emphasising the complicated interaction of social structures, political forces, and medical knowledge. Topics may include: pre-modern understandings of disease and the body; the history of the germ theory of disease; colonial medicine; eugenics; sexually transmitted diseases; alcoholism; cancer and the tobacco industry; and the opioid crisis.

Areas of study: History Health Humanities

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. Identify and describe the key debates in the history of health and medicine;
2. Locate, assess, and analyse historical evidence;
3. Construct in writing an evidence-based historical argument;
4. Collaborate with peers.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.