Health, Illness, and Power in America
AMST 353
Spring 2027
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
STS 353 |
In this class, we will explore the interlocking histories of health, illness, and power in America. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which discourses of the healthy body have undergirded notions of citizenship and belonging in the nation. We will consider how processes of disease, disability, and contagion have been imagined through the lenses of social difference, including race, gender, sexuality, and class. We will address civil institutions designed to manage individual and population health, and we will consider theories of political power in the making of the "modern" body. Sample topics covered will include immigration policies and contagious disease scares; STDs and the politics of public health campaigns; physical fitness and the value of bodily labor under capitalism; the management of diseases that are symptomatic and those that are not; individualized approaches to medicine and medical difference; clinical trials and the ethics of human experimentation; pregnancy and childbirth; regulations surrounding blood and organ donation; changing rituals of bodily hygiene; preventative medicine and the call to personal responsibility; mental health policies and institutions; and pride movements surrounding the "unhealthy" body. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (American Studies)(Human Rights Advocacy Minor)(Science and Technology Studies) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Sample reading list may include excerpts from:
Adams, GLYPHOSATE AND THE SWIRL: AN AGROINDUSTRIAL CHEMICAL ON THE MOVE
Briggs, INCOMMUNICABLE: TOWARD COMMUNICATIVE JUSTICE IN HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Dumes, DIVIDED BODIES: LYME DISEASE, CONTESTED ILLNESS, AND EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
Gremillion, FEEDING ANOREXIA: GENDER AND POWER AT A TREATMENT CENTER
Lock, THE ALZHEIMER¿S CONUNDRUM: ENTANGLEMENTS OF DEMENTIA AND AGING
Metzl, AGAINST HEALTH: HOW HEALTH BECAME THE NEW MORALITY
Richardson, THE MATERNAL IMPRINT: THE CONTESTED SCIENCE OF MATERNAL-FETAL EFFECTS
Smirnova, THE PRESCRIPTION-TO-PRISON PIPELINE: THE MEDICALIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION OF PAIN
Tompkins, DEVIANT MATTER: FERMENT, INTOXICANTS, JELLY, ROT
Waldby, CLINICAL LABOR: TISSUE DONORS AND RESEARCH SUBJECTS IN THE GLOBAL BIOECONOMY
Zaborskis, QUEER CHILDHOODS: INSTITUTIONAL FUTURES OF INDIGENEITY, RACE, AND DISABILITY
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly Moodle posts, short response essay, presentation, final paper |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Glick,Megan H. Times: .....F. 09:00AM-11:50AM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 1 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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