Critical Discourses of Health and Humanity

Course Number: 82-080

What does it mean to be a healer, and what does it mean to inhabit a body that society deems "broken"? This course traces the evolution of medicine not as a timeline of technological triumphs, but as a deeply humanistic, cross-cultural dialogue. Students will contrast Western biomedical frameworks with Eastern medical philosophies and Global South perspectives. Crucially, the course integrates Critical Disability Studies to challenge the idea that medicine's sole purpose is to "cure." Instead, we examine how culture, philosophy and power dictate our understanding of health, illness, suffering and human variation.

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Degree: Undergraduate
Concentration: Undergraduate Seminars
Semester(s): Spring
Units: 9
Prerequisite(s): None