Critical Approaches to the Medical Humanities: Health and Disease in the Past
| Module title | Critical Approaches to the Medical Humanities: Health and Disease in the Past |
|---|---|
| Module code | HISM048 |
| Academic year | 2023/4 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Chris Sandal-Wilson (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 10 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 10 |
|---|
Module description
The medical humanities constitute a growing field of scholarship that analyses and interprets a broad set of medical/health issues. This module introduces you to key methodological and analytical approaches humanities and social science scholars have taken to studying medicine, health and disease in the past. Through multi- and inter-disciplinary readings and seminar discussion, you will gain a good understanding of how various humanities disciplines – and interdisciplinary clusters – interpret historical medical topics, and consider the relationship between this scholarship and medical practice.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module is designed to enhance your understanding of the main themes and approaches in the interdisciplinary study of the medical humanities with a focus on past societies. It will enable you to think critically about key methods and techniques used by humanities and social science researchers to analyse and interpret issues of health, medicine and disease in their historical and cultural contexts. It will give you the skills necessary to review scholarly books and articles in medical humanities, and to produce critical writing assessing key themes, approaches and methods. You will have the opportunity to consider the ways in which medical humanities scholarship and the study of health and disease in the past can make a contribution to contemporary health care.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand and evaluate the main themes and approaches in the study of medical humanities
- 2. Possess detailed knowledge of the key historiographical and theoretical debates informing the study of medical humanities
- 3. Assess critically the role of primary sources in informing the study of medical humanities
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesise different types of historical material and evidence
- 5. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key historical concepts and debates, and recognise the differences between different approaches and source types
- 6. Develop practical research skills in the primary and secondary evidence
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 7. Demonstrate capacity for independent critical research, study and thought, including developing the ability to construct and defend a sustained argument, both in written form and orally, using primary and secondary materials
- 8. Work as an individual and with a tutor and peers in an independent, constructive and responsive way
- 9. Apply key bibliographical skills to independent study
Syllabus plan
This will be a team-taught module and the syllabus will vary on a year-by-year basis according to the composition of the module team and student choice. Seminars will offer students the opportunity to explore a range of topics and approaches to the study of health in the past. These might potentially include:
- Introduction to the medical humanities
- Pandemics: past and present
- Reproduction and society
- Gender, sexuality, science
- Self-fashioning the body
- Disability studies and disability histories
- Care across time and culture
- Human, animal, and environmental health
- The politics of international health
- Medicine, colonialism, and decolonisation
- Psychiatry and mental health
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 280 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 20 | Educational package (10 x 2 hours) |
| Guided independent study | 280 | Independent study |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan or abstract/statement of aims | 1 side A4 maximum | 1-9 | Oral and written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual written assignment | 33 | 2000 words | 1-9 | Oral and written |
| Individual written assignment | 67 | 4000 words | 1-9 | Oral and written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual written assignment | Individual written assignment | 1-9 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Individual written assignment | Individual written assignment | 1-9 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Victoria Bates, Alan Bleakley and Sam Goodman, eds Medicine, Health and the Arts: Approaches to the Medical Humanities (Routledge, 2014).
- Josie Gill, Catriona McKenzie, and Emma Lightfoot, eds Writing Remains: New Intersections of Archaeology, Literature and Science (Bloomsbury, 2021).
- Nick Hopwood, Rebecca Flemming, and Lauren Kassell, eds Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
- Mark Jackson, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2011).Michael Rembis, Catherine Kudlick, and Kim E. Nielsen, eds The Oxford Handbook of Disability History (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Julia Shaw and Naomi Sykes, ‘New directions in the archaeology of medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care’, World Archaeology 50, 3 (2018), pp.365-83.
- Sarah Toulalan and Kate Fisher, eds Bodies, Sex, and Desire from the Renaissance to the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
- Dora Vargha, Polio across the Iron Curtain: Hungary’s Cold War with an Epidemic (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
- Anne Whitehead and Angela Woods, eds The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).
- Alun Withey, Technology, Self-Fashioning, and Politeness in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Refined Bodies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 21/04/2016 |
| Last revision date | 06/04/2023 |
