WMST 285 - Sex, Gender and the History of Medicine

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as GRST 285 and STS 285) This course looks at topics in the history of medicine that can be traced from their Classical roots into the modern period. Topics include abortion and miscarriage, hysteria, the one/two sex body, dissection, and epilepsy or panic attacks (called the “sacred disease” in antiquity) among others. We look at how disease, pathology, and medical interventions are culturally situated and gendered. For instance, what was “mobile womb” in ancient Greek medicine comes to be hysteria in the 19th century, and has its legacy in modern medical dismissals of women’s pain and suffering. Tara Mulder.

Two 75-minute periods.