History and Anthropology of Medicine and Biology
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this seminar on how historians and anthropologists have studied medicine and the life sciences in recent decades. Topics vary by year but typically include the interaction of disease and society, the links between science, colonialism, and international health, the effects of new technologies on medicine and biology, the history of neuroscience and psychiatry, and debates over race, biology, and medicine. Materials include a syllabus, reading lists drawn from historical and anthropological scholarship, and discussion-based assignments rather than recorded lectures. The course is aimed at students who want to think critically about how medical and biological knowledge has been shaped by social, political, and colonial contexts. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all course materials are free to access online, with no certificate offered.