Why did ancient patients seek medical care from exorcists? Why did Hippocrates believe that a woman’s uterus could move around her body? Why did ancient kings allow doctors to dissect the bodies of living criminals? These are some of the questions that this course will answer while covering more than two thousand years of medical history. In learning how to analyze works by Hippocrates and other medical writers from Greece, Rome, and the Middle East, students will discover that modern debates about bioethics, gender and racial biases in healthcare, and the role of ‘alternative’ therapies have their roots in the pre-modern period. Furthermore, students will come to understand how medicine is a product of culture.

Course Requirements:

Midterm and Final Exams; Public History Assignment (e.g., blog, podcast, or zine) with scaffold exercises

Intended Audience:

Requires no prior knowledge of the ancient world or past experience with humanities courses

Class Format:

two meetings (lecture) and one discussion section per week