History Seminar
Fall 2008
(Click Here for Seminar Registration and Waitlist Information)
The
Medical World of Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800, will explore various aspects
of the medical world such as the understanding and treatment of disease, the
rise of the professional doctor, the patient and the medical marketplace,
gender politics in the medical treatment of women and childbirth, and the
development of public health as a political issue during the Enlightenment.
Events that hinged on the practice of early modern medicine, from treatment of
disease to childbirth, were omnipresent in early modern society. It is my hope
that the readings, as well as the students’ own research, will enable students
to view medicine as an integrated facet of early modern experience. As a 401
seminar, the majority of the class will be devoted to conducting primary-source
research and writing a 25-page paper on some aspect of early modern medicine.
In addition to the weeks of common reading, students will also engage in formal
peer review sessions to workshop their peers’ papers, as well as individual
meetings with the instructor. The student’s final grade will be based upon two
short writing assignments, an oral presentation of research, class
participation, and the final research paper.
The required reading includes the following works:
- Cunningham, Andrew and Roger French, eds. The Medical Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
- French, Roger, ed. Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1998.
- Hunter, Lynette and Sarah Hutton, eds. Women, Science and Medicine 1500-1700: Mothers and Sisters of the Royal Society. Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub., 1997.
- Gentilcore, David. Healers and Healing in Early Modern Italy. Manchester: Manchester University Press,1998.
- Wear, Andrew. Knowledge and Practice in Early Modern English Medicine, 1550-1680. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.