HIS31460 Medicine, Culture and Society

Academic Year 2022/2023

Why and when did Western governments intervene in the health of populations, including their reproductive and sexual health? What form did these interventions take in colonial contexts? How did medical and scientific concepts of health, ill-health, and susceptibility to disease differ according to gender, race, ethnicity and class? How did different social, political and professional groups respond to the enhanced power of medical science and professions? Did they embrace new public health regimes and medical institutions with enthusiasm or were they viewed with suspicion, opposition and resistance?

Examining Britain and Ireland (1750-1950), this module explores the development of medical innovations and institutions - vaccination, contraception, antiseptic techniques, hospitals, and new sciences such as microbiology. We assess social and political responses to the rise of medical power including anti-vaccination movements, the impact of eugenic ideas on medical practice, and the rise of state medical education for men and women. Why and how did the mainly male medical profession oppose women becoming doctors? Were early 20th century feminist campaigns for greater access to contraception shaped by eugenic theories? How were medical science, institutions, ideas, and services shaped by classism, racism and conceptions of gender in the 19th and 20th centuries? And why and how were these medical institutions and sets of practices transplanted across the British Empire, often supplanting existing complex medical cultures?

The course draws on British and Irish sources and introduces students to a selection of primary source material, including patients’ narratives, film and pictorial sources.


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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should a) develop study, writing and communication skills b) develop an awareness of key concepts and methodologies that historians have used to approach medical history c) develop critical skills through the assessment of a range of historical and inter-disciplinary approaches within the social history of medicine d) develop the ability to handle historical sources, and to evaluate a range of primary sources.

Indicative Module Content:

Topics and themes explored in the module include:
The Rise of the Hospital and the Lunatic Asylums; The Making of the Medical Profession; Midwives, Men-midwives and Childbirth; Women in Medicine and Nursing; Disease, Sanitation and Public Health; Prostitution and Venereal Disease; War and Medicine; Contraception and Family Planning; From Germ Theory to Social Medicine; The Rise of State Medicine.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

20

Project Supervision

2

Specified Learning Activities

95

Autonomous Student Learning

105

Total

222

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This is a small-group, seminar-based module. It is taught through two-hourly seminars held weekly. These provide an overview of the week’s topic, focusing upon key historical trends, debates and events. The weekly seminar is focused upon individual active / task-based learning by means of class debates, discussion and student presentations. Advanced research, writing and citation skills are developed through a combined individual student presentation on primary sources and written essay, and a semester-long 2,500-3,000 word research project. Autonomous learning is advanced through student-led debate and discussion of set primary sources and / or student presentations each week. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Incompatibles:
HIS20930 - Medicine, Culture & Soc, HIS30160 - Medicine and Modern Life, HIS30540 - Themed Seminar: Medicine, HIS31030 - Medicine, Culture, & Society


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: See handbook Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

60

Project: 2,500-3,000 word research paper Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

40


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback on the continuous assessments will be given in written and oral form on the returned hard-copy and by appointment in one-to-one meetings with the module co-ordinator. Oral feedback on the continuous assessments will be given by peers during activities. Written and oral feedback will be provided in one-to-one meetings with module co-ordinator on an ongoing basis on preparatory plans and primary and secondary source bibliographies for end-of-semester Research Project Assignments. Feedback on the end-of-semester Research Project Assignment will be given by appointment in one-to-one meetings.