Core modules: weeks 1–4 Michaelmas
| Medical Anthropology Iza Kavedžija Phoenix Room 1, New Museums Site (Week 2 on Friday 13 October, 1.30–3.00pm in HPS Seminar Room 2) |
Thursdays, 10–11.30am |
| Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine Stephen John and Michael Diamond-Hunter Seminar Room E, 17 Mill Lane |
Mondays, 10–11.30am |
| Medical Sociology Darin Weinberg HPS Board Room |
Mondays, 2–3.30pm |
| History of Medicine Salim Al-Gailani and Philippa Carter Seminar Room E, 17 Mill Lane |
Tuesdays, 3–4.30pm |
Optional modules: weeks 5–8 Michaelmas
| Medical Anthropology: 'Non-Normal' – Bodies, (Dis)Abilities, Epistemologies Kelly Fagan Robinson Phoenix Room 1, New Museums Site |
Thursdays, 10–11.30am |
| Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine: Non-Epistemic Values in Biomedical Research Stephen John and Michael Diamond-Hunter HPS Seminar Room 2 |
Mondays, 10–11.30am |
| Medical Sociology: Reproduction, Technology and Society Sarah Franklin HPS Seminar Room 1 |
Mondays, 2–3.30pm |
| History of Medicine: More-than-Human Medicine Dmitriy Myelnikov Week 5: HPS Board Room Weeks 6–8: HPS Seminar Room 1 |
Tuesdays, 3–4.30pm |
Optional modules: weeks 1–4 Lent
| Medical Anthropology: Anthropology of Aging and the Life Course Iza Kavedžija HPS Seminar Room 1 |
Thursdays, 10.15–11.45am |
| Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine: AI in Healthcare Marta Halina HPS Seminar Room 2 |
Mondays, 10–11.30am |
| Medical Sociology: The Political Economy of Biomedical Innovation Stuart Hogarth HPS Seminar Room 1 |
Thursdays, 3–4.30pm |
| History of Medicine: Reproduction Salim Al-Gailani and Philippa Carter HPS Seminar Room 1 |
Tuesdays, 3–4.30pm |
Michaelmas Term: Core modules
Medical Anthropology
Weeks 1–4 Michaelmas
10.00–11.30am Thursdays
(Week 2 on Friday 13 October, 1.30–3.00pm in HPS Seminar Room 2)
Iza Kavedžija
This course aims to offer a challenging introductory foundation to anthropology in the context of medicine and health. Over the course of term, it will support student understanding of key anthropological questions, approaches, and challenges, as well as the role anthropologists may play in global health events. It will move through anthropological theory and practice using theory alongside ethnographic texts and films, exploring the ways that context and positionality (of the researchers, the participants, the author(s) and other stakeholders) impact upon key narratives.
Themes will include: bodies living & dead; institutional quantification of health; epidemics; pain.
Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine
Weeks 1–4 Michaelmas
10.00–11.30am Mondays
Stephen John and Michael Diamond-Hunter
This core module will introduce students to philosophical perspectives on health, medicine and society. Half of the module will cover core topics in philosophy of medicine, and the other half will cover topics in medical ethics. (Note that the optional modules discuss some of these issues in more detail.)
Medical Sociology
Weeks 1–4 Michaelmas
2.00–3.30pm Mondays
Darin Weinberg
This module is designed to thoroughly acquaint students with the profoundly social nature of human health, illness, and disease. On a more pragmatic level, it is meant to facilitate a solid grasp of the most fundamental debates in the field, and to inspire, encourage, and prepare students to contribute to these debates. To this end, we will consider several facets of the relationship between human society and human health and illness. Major themes will include concepts of health and illness, the doctor-patient relationship and alternative medicine, health inequalities, and the relationship between social marginality and mental pathology.
History of Medicine
Weeks 1–4 Michaelmas
3.00–4.30pm Tuesdays
Salim Al-Gailani and Philippa Carter
The course offers an advanced introduction to medical history by exploring some of the most interesting writing on the kinds of medicine practised in domestic sick rooms, on hospital wards and in laboratories. The seminars assess the usefulness of the categories 'bedside medicine', 'hospital medicine', 'experimental medicine' and 'biomedicine' for understanding change and continuity between early modernity and the present day. The major theme is the ways in which changing social relations have shaped knowledge and management of disease and the experience of illness.
Michaelmas Term: Optional modules
Medical Anthropology: 'Non-Normal' – Bodies, (Dis)Abilities, Epistemologies
Weeks 5–8 Michaelmas
10.00–11.30am Thursdays
Kelly Fagan Robinson
Sensation, we are told, is 'the most confused notion there is… for having accepted it, classical analyses have missed the phenomenon of perception' (Merleau-Ponty 2012:25). Despite this, 'sense' as it is typically described in academic Euro-American texts is often unquestioned. Anthropological engagement in sense and the body, as Scheper-Hughes & Lock famously argued, can be seen as invisibly but normatively contrived, symptomatic of the culture in which they are analysed rather than in the body-subject itself. The emphasis of this seminar is to contend with social and physiological interventions in the body – particularly 'disabled' bodies which are adjusted (or not) to be more 'normal'. We will examine alternative perceptions of body, sensing, being-in-the-world, and privilege to re-define what 'normal' is and what it does in/for anthropological praxis.
Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine: Non-Epistemic Values in Biomedical Research
Weeks 5–8 Michaelmas
10.00–11.30am Mondays
Stephen John and Michael Diamond-Hunter
There are very many ways in which ethical, social, political and cultural values shape biomedical research. In these sessions, we analyse two key topics arising from the 'value-ladenness' of bio-medical research: first, whether and when it undermines claims to objectivity and knowledge; second, how it does and should affect the communication, reception and uses of biomedical research, both by individuals and private and public corporate actors. In addressing the first set of topics, we address some key debates in recent philosophy of science over the viability of the 'Value Free Ideal'. In addressing the second, we investigate the philosophical bases for various proposals for reforming research structure.
Medical Sociology: Reproduction, Technology and Society
Weeks 5–8 Michaelmas
2.00–3.30pm Mondays
Sarah Franklin
Fertility and infertility are often mediated and managed by a variety of technologies. From contraception to assisted reproduction, from 'low-tech' methods to highly medicalised interventions, people encounter various forms of reproductive technologies throughout their lives. There is now a large body of social science research that examines how the availability of, or lack of access to, reproductive technologies shapes people's experiences and perceptions. Using case studies, this module explores some of this work, by asking questions about our changing relationship to technology, biology and medicine, and introducing key concepts, theories and methods in the sociology of reproduction.
History of Medicine: More-than-Human Medicine
Weeks 5–8 Michaelmas
3.00–4.30pm Tuesdays
Dmitriy Myelnikov
Nonhuman animals are often by our side when it comes to human health and wellbeing. As disease vectors, proxies for humans in laboratories, sources of pharmaceuticals or parts of therapies themselves, animals have shaped modern medicine in numerous important ways. This module draws on historical literature, as well as some theoretical perspectives from the interdisciplinary field of animal studies, to interrogate the changing human-animal relationships in the twentieth century and their role in shaping both human and animal health. The course will investigate the uses of animals in medical practice, the controversial topic of animal experimentation, the rise of 'One Health' approaches to medicine across species, and the connected histories of livestock farming, environment, and health.
Lent Term: Optional modules
Medical Anthropology: Anthropology of Aging and the Life Course
Weeks 1–4 Lent
10.15–11.45am Thursdays
Iza Kavedžija
Who can expect to live to old age? How long can people hope to live in relatively good health? How are health and personhood reconfigured in the later years? As increases in longevity around the world affect how older age is experienced and understood, questions such as these take on new relevance. This module will begin by exploring explore ideas of the life course, life stages, and inequalities associated with aging. We will then turn to the lived experience of aging, focusing on personhood and the body. The concept of care, in the third session, allow us to bring population perspectives into conjunction with the more immediate experiences of carers and those for whom they care. In the final session, we will discuss cultural perspectives on death and the ends of life.
Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine: AI in Healthcare
Weeks 1–4 Lent
10.00–11.30am Mondays
Marta Halina
Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in biomedical research and clinical practice. This course introduces students to the unique philosophical and ethical challenges involved in the use of AI in medicine. Topics include the interpretability and explainability of artificial systems, the ethics of robot carers, the role of AI in medical diagnosis, and the implications of using AI in biomedical research. Please be prepared to discuss the core readings before each session.
Medical Sociology: The Political Economy of Biomedical Innovation
Weeks 1–4 Lent
3.00–4.30pm Thursdays
Stuart Hogarth
This module enables students to understand social science perspectives on the contemporary bioeconomy. It will explore how the biomedical research enterprise is being reshaped by governments and corporations as they search for competitive advantage in an increasingly global bioeconomy. The module is interdisciplinary drawing inter alia on science and technology studies, socio-legal studies and political economy. Topics covered will include: the emergence of the idea of a knowledge-based economy, and its function as part of the neoliberal state project (the shift from government to governance); the concept of promissory science and the promotion of biotechnology as a 'frontier technology'; intersection between public policy and commercial strategy, and the changing relationships between governments, corporations and academic scientists; the role of regulation as a both a response to and a shaper of biotechnologies; the importance of intellectual property rights in the bioeconomy, the legalisation of patents on novel life-based technologies and the globalisation of the IP regime favoured by Western pharmaceutical companies through the TRIPS agreement.
History of Medicine: Reproduction
Weeks 1–4 Lent
3.00–4.30pm Tuesdays
Salim Al-Gailani and Philippa Carter
From contraception to cloning and from pregnancy to populations, reproduction presents urgent challenges today. This module introduces the history of reproduction from the middle ages to the present. It takes a long view, asking how modern 'reproduction' – an abstract process of perpetuating living organisms – replaced the old 'generation' – the active making of humans and beasts, plants and even minerals. It also takes a broad view, from individual decisions about having or not having children to global policies, and from medicine to animal breeding. It provides resources for understanding how our world of reproductive practice and controversy was made.