AS/SOSC 2110 6.0
A Critical Study of Health & Society
Fall / Winter 2011 - 2012
Course Director: Megan J. Davies, Ph D

Expanded Course Description

In this course we explore the idea of health, not a monolithic system, but as a set of beliefs and practices that have been negotiated and debated over time.  The course readings and lecture material are interdisciplinary, drawing on anthropology, sociology, human geography and history.  Students are encouraged to make links between their own lives and experiences and the material covered in the course.

The course is divided into three sections.  The first section is theoretical, including an overview of the history of western medicine and situating its development within the contexts of professional, institutional and technological evolution, gender, race and the global context of imperial expansion.  Employing the concept of medical pluralism in the second section of the course, we then look at non-Western and alternative health systems as a comparison and a complement to mainstream Western biomedicine.  The third section of the course deals with the practice of health, covering health in the global context, state health care in Canada, and specific health issues which are currently the subject of discussion in the field of health care. 

*Weekly lectures will be supplemented by films and guest lectures.  Tutorial meetings in weeks 2-16 will be focussed on analyzing the required readings which are scholarly articles relating to the weekly lectures.  Tutorial meetings in weeks 17-18 provide students with an opportunity to share research findings from their course projects with fellow students. The final set of tutorial meetings will be spent analyzing contemporary documents from public sources which relate to the weekly lectures.  Please note that materials from the course lectures, guest lectures, films, and tutorial readings will be included on course exams.