This topics course is designed to introduce students to how historical questions and debates continue to shape and reshape society, particularly with respect to large, structural systems, as well as the creation and implications of social identities, including race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliations.
The particular topic for this section is the History of Health Technologies. This course surveys the history of health technologies in the western world from the ancient world to today. It looks at myriad different medical technologies interrogating the ways technologies have intersected with cultural constructs of disease, race, class, gender, nationality, and bodies. It explores, through broad narrative and specific case studies, theories and practices employed by physicians, the social construction of health and illness, and the role of technologies in medical professionalization, medical power, and patient agency.
Through readings, lectures, discussions, examinations, as well as writing assignments, students, upon completion of this course, will be able to:
Students will be able to EXPLAIN in their work how diverse peoples, as individuals, and in complex groups, shaped their own historical moments and were shaped by those moments.
Students will DISTINGUISH between primary and secondary sources, IDENTIFY and EVALUATE different kinds of evidence about what motivates people to act as they do.
Students will DESIGN research projects to understand different communities, social groups, and social systems, and EXPLAIN how diverse identities are created, maintained, and adapted by different groups over time.
Students will IDENTIFY how information about humans and societies is researched from a variety of sources, EXPLAIN how different methods results in different kinds of arguments, and EVALUATE credibility, perspective, and relevance.
Students will EXPLAIN how historical narratives are constructed, how historians mediate between the past and present, and how source analysis, rhetoric, and storytelling play integral roles in constructing historical knowledge.
| Points | Grade |
|---|---|
| 94+ | A |
| 90-94 | A- |
| 87-89 | B+ |
| 83-86 | B |
| 80-82 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 73-76 | C |
| 70-72 | C- |
| 67-69 | D+ |
| 60-66 | D |
| 59- | F |
Please talk to me about your grade at any time, and as often as you’d like. Please do not email about this; a conversation is far more useful and efficient and avoids misunderstandings. Right before or after class is a good time, as well as office hours.
CAPS Tutoring Services is a free-of-charge educational assistance program available to UNM students enrolled in classes. Online services include the Online Writing Lab, Chatting with or asking a question of a Tutor.
The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodations of their disabilities. If you have a disability requiring accommodation, please contact me immediately to make arrangements as well as Accessibility Services Office in 2021 Mesa Vista Hall at 277-3506 or http://as2.unm.edu/index.html. Information about your disability is confidential.
You should be familiar with UNM’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty and the Student Code of Conduct which outline academic misconduct defined as plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, or facilitating any such act.