Courses
Faculty members in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine offer courses at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and other schools of Harvard University. Most courses listed in these pages are for Harvard and MIT students.
Global Health and Social Medicine
Harvard Medical School
SM750. Introduction to Social Medicine [pdf]
Required course, for first year medical students at HMS.
Global Health Seminar [pdf]
Offered in conjunction with SM750.
HT934. Introduction to Global Medicine: Bioscience, Technologies, Disparities, Strategies
Required for first year Health Sciences and Technology students.
SM515M.J Clerkship in Medical Anthropology
For third or fourth year medical students; open to exchange students, with permission of the instructor
ME715.J. Clinical Topics in Global Health [pdf]
To be offered in winter/spring 2011.
Medical Ethics
Harvard Medical School
MA750. Medical Ethics and Professionalism
Required course, for first year medical students at HMS.
Global Health Delivery
Introduction to Global Health Care Delivery
An intensive case-based course offered at Harvard School of Public Health in January and July. This course will engage students in analysis of case studies that describe interventions to improve health care delivery in resource-poor settings. Class room discussion of these case studies will help illuminate principles and frameworks for the design of efficient and effective global health interventions. Through a focus on HIV, tuberculosis, and polio, these cases will allow students to carefully consider the question of how epidemiology, pathophysiology, culture, economics, and politics inform the design of interventions. For current information, see the HSPH Registrar’s Office.
Value-Based Health Care Delivery Immersion
An intensive course to be offered January 5-9, 2009 at Harvard Business School; instructors—Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg
For additional courses related to global health delivery, see the Global Health Seminar under Harvard Medical School and Anthropology 1825 under Medical Anthropology.
Global Health
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Societies of the World 24. Global Health Challenges: Complexities of Evidence-based Policy
Sue J. Goldie (Harvard School of Public Health)
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged.
This course introduces the global health challenges posed by failure to adequately reduce infections, malnutrition, and maternal-child health problems in the most vulnerable populations, escalating rates of non-communicable diseases/injuries, and emerging health risks that cross national boundaries. We will assess social responses to these challenges at the community, national, and global levels. Through an understanding of population health measures, we will examine patterns of disease/mortality between and within countries, capture important time trends, and identify determinants of health inequalities. While emphasizing science driven policy, comparative case examples will illuminate influential systemic factors, health system performance, and the economic/social/political climate.
Societies of the World 25 (formerly Anthropology 1825). Health, Culture and Community: Case Studies in Global Health
Arthur M. Kleinman (Anthropology; Harvard Medical School), Paul E. Farmer (Harvard Medical School; Harvard School of Public Health), Anne Becker (Harvard Medical School), and Salmaan Keshavjee (Harvard Medical School)
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30, and a weekly section to be arranged.
Examines, through lecturers and case-based discussions, a collection of global health problems rooted in rapidly changing social structures that transcend national and other administrative boundaries. Students will explore case studies (addressing AIDS, tuberculosis, mental illness, and other topics) and a diverse literature (including epidemiology, anthropology, history, and clinical medicine), focusing on how a broad biosocial analysis might improve the delivery of services designed to lessen the burden of disease, especially among those living in poverty.
Medical Anthropology
Harvard Faculty Of Arts & Sciences
Anthropology 1886. Sense and Sensibility: William and Henry James in Anthropological Perspective - (New Course)
Arthur Kleinman and Steven C. Caton
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3.
This is the centenary year of William James’ death (d. 1910), and it is fitting that we should look back on the work of this great Harvard psychologist and philosopher and his many contributions to American thought. A retrospective on some of the ideas and work of his brother, the great novelist Henry James, is included. To capture what William James was after we use the term "sense," in both the empirical and the value-laden meanings for experience. For Henry James, we will speak of "sensibility." We will attempt to understand their varied projects in their own as well as their contemporaries’ terms but also offer a modern anthropological interpretation and appreciation of them. Weekly readings will be supplemented with occasional field trips to relevant sites of interest.
Anthropology 2736. Medical Anthropology of Contemporary Africa
Duana Fullwiley
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4.
This course will examine the health effects of larger problems facing Africa today, including military and humanitarian HIV/AIDS interventions, genetic studies and offshore clinical trials, ethnic and state violence, economic crisis, resource extraction and migration.
[Anthropology 2740 (formerly Anthropology 245). Culture, Mental Illness, and the Body]
Byron J. Good (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3.
Briefly reviews the figure of mental illness in Western thought and the social sciences, then focuses on themes in cross-cultural studies of psychopathology: culture and diagnosis; cultural influences on depression, schizophrenia, and dissociation; madness in non-Euroamerican healing systems; and transnational aspects of psychiatry. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
[Anthropology 2750. Local Biologies: Perspectives on the Interaction Between Culture and Biology]
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3.
Reviews the variety of anthropological perspectives on the interactions between culture and biology. Topics include mind-brain-society interaction in pain; cross-cultural studies of menopause; sociosomatics of depression; the new genetics and eugenics; research on stress and trauma. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor.
[Anthropology 2765. Gender in Conflict: Violence, Militarism and War]
Kimberly Theidon
Half course (fall term). M., 1–3.
In this seminar we will combine theoretical texts with classic and contemporary ethnographies to explore the anthropological study of ethics and ethical resources as related to debates that have animated the field of medical anthropology. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
Anthropology 2785. Theories of Subjectivity in Current Anthropology
Byron J. Good (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3.
Theoretical positions and anthropological debates concerning subjectivity. Freud, Lacan, Butler, Agamben, Zizek, Foucault, and Mbembe read alongside ethnographic texts on violence, suffering, governmentality, and the state.
Anthropology 2876 (formerly Anthropology 276). New Ethnographies in the Anthropology of Social Experience
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4.
New ethnographies of social experience and subjectivity are remaking anthropology. Students critically examine studies of illness, violence, and cultural responses to other human problems. Emphasis is on the methodology, writing, and ethics of such ethnographies.
[Anthropology 2790. Anthropological Interviewing]
Byron J. Good (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3.
Provides theoretical grounding and practical supervision in ethnographic interviewing. Addresses life history and inteview design, developing and managing intimacy, recognizing transference and counter transference, recording and transcribing data, and textual analysis. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
[Anthropology 2855. Deep China: What Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry Contribute to the Study of China Today]
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3.
What do accounts of depression, suicide, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, SARS, HIV/AIDS, starvation and the personal and family trauma of political violence teach us about China and the Chinese over the last few decades? Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Open to undergraduates.
[*Anthropology 2856. Biography, the Novel, Psychotherapy and Ethnography: Deep Ways of Knowing the Person in the Moral Context]
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4.
Compares deep ways of knowing the person in his/her cultural, political, economic and, most especially, moral context. Reads strong examples from each field to learn about individual and collective experience under uncertainty and danger. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
History of Medicine
Harvard Faculty Of Arts & Sciences
History of Science 108. Bodies, Sexualities, and Medicine in the Medieval Middle East - (New Course)
Ahmed Ragab
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 11.
History of Science 110. Quarantine: Bubonic Plague and the Invention of the Middle East
Aaron Shakow
Half course (fall term). T., Th. at 12.
Much like terrorism today, the fear of bubonic plague from the Middle East once loomed large over international relations. But what was the plague? How did economic, political and religious rivalries affect its diagnosis and regulation? What is the historical connection between human rights, clinical epidemiology, and the state health regulation? How can Middle Eastern perspectives help us understand its identity and impact? This course will cover the role of plague control in international public health and its contribution to divisions between East and West. The problem of identifying epidemic causes--and the parallel act of defining communities--will be approached from a variety of perspectives, from the sociology of knowledge to cognitive social science to Scriptural exegesis. Students will be encouraged to become familiar with the forms of ‘epidemiology’ that link creative texts with legal institutions, and the significance of those institutions for medicine, society, and scholarship over the last five centuries. In the process, they will gain insight into the complex interaction of words on paper with the natural world.
History of Science 112. Health, Medicine and Healing in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 10.
A survey of medical theory, organization, and practice in the broader context of healing, including magical and religious healing. Topics include the construction of medical authority and expertise, the play of sex and gender among healers and patients, the rise of hospitals, and responses to "new" diseases such as syphilis and plague.
History of Science 113. Crusades, Plagues and Hospitals: Medicine and Society in the Islamic Middle Ages - (New Course)
Ahmed Ragab
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4.
Surveys the recasting of Islamic medical practices, traditions, and institutions in response to the many health challenges of the turbulent Middle Ages, from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, including wars, invasions, and epidemics.
History of Science 133. Biotechnology and Society
Hallam Stevens
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 10.
Analyzes contemporary debates about stem cells, genetically modified organisms, patenting of life, and cloning using the tools of history and the social sciences. Locating the origins of biotechnology in agricultural and beer-brewing techniques of the nineteenth century, this class traces the recent history of attempts to control, manipulate, and utilize biology to further human ends. Understanding the political, economic, medical, and cultural histories of biotechnology will illuminate how contemporary biotechnologies are re-framing what we mean by ’natural,’ ’artificial,’ ’living,’ and ’human.’
[History of Science 141. The Social Life of Pharmaceuticals]
Jeremy Alan Greene
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4.
The evolution of the modern pharmaceutical industry over the long twentieth century--from its early intersection with the image and later the structure of scientific research, to its dramatic post-WWII expansion and late-century saturation of medical and marketing media--is tightly intertwined with broader social, cultural, economic, and political developments. This conference course engages primary and secondary works in the history and anthropology of pharmaceuticals to situation the prescription drug as cultural artifact. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
[*History of Science 145 (formerly *History of Science 90m). Medicine and Deviance: Conference Course]
Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Charles E. Rosenberg
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4.
Sociologists and historians have described what they call the medicalization of deviance: explaining certain behaviors as the consequences of disease rather than culpable choice. I refer to a variety of behaviors ranging from homosexuality to substance abuse, from chronic fatigue syndrome to premenstrual syndrome. This course will focus on the interrelated legal, medical, policy, and professional history of such problematic “diseases” during the past century and a half. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
[History of Science 148. History of Global Health]
Jeremy Alan Greene
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11.
A survey course for undergraduates and graduate students exploring the interrelated histories of public health, international health, and global health from the 19th to the 21st centuries, with attention to the relationship between Western and non-Western forms of scientific practice and health systems. This course will trace the role of health and medicine in mediating the relationships between metropolis and colony, state and citizen, North and South, public welfare and private interest, research practices and human subjects, the commodification of health and the body, and human rights discourse. The course will be divided chronologically into four parts, tracing imperial health formations in the long 19th century, the nascent internationalism of the interwar period, the construction of bureaucracies of development in the postwar and postcolonial era, and configurations of public- and private-sector actors in late 20th and early 21st century global health practices. This course will meet twice weekly for lectures and once a week in small group sections; graduate students can enroll in a separate graduate seminar section. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
History of Science 240. The Body in Health and Disease: Seminar
Charles E. Rosenberg
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4.
“Sickness” and “health,” notions of inappropriate and appropriate behavior, are determined by conceptions of the body and its proper management. Discussion will focus first upon secondary studies and subsequently upon students’ research.
[*History of Science 244. Research in the History of Medical Ethics: Seminar ]
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Course provides a framework for the historical examination of debates concerning medical ethics, and seeks to identify social, cultural, political, and economic forces that have shaped value conflicts in clinical medicine and health policy. Students are expected to write a research paper utilizing primary and archival source materials. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
History of Science 247. Current Issues in the History of Medicine: Seminar
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (fall term). M., 4–6.
Explores new methods for understanding disease, medicine, and society, ranging from historical demography to cultural studies. Topics include patterns of health and disease, changes in medical science and clinical practice, the doctor-patient relationship, health care systems, alternative healing, and representations of the human body. The course will focus on historical problem-framing, research strategies, and writing.
Sociology of Medicine
Harvard Faculty Of Arts & Sciences
[Sociology 160. Medicine, Health Policy and Bioethics in Comparative and Global Perspective: Conference Course]
Mary-Jo Del Vecchio Good
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3.
Complements Sociology 162. Examines the culture and political economy of biomedicine and health care institutions in the US and internationally. Analysis of current debates on medical education and the new professionalism; clinical narratives, the medical imaginary and the biotechnical embrace; cultural diversity, disparities and inequalities in medical and mental health care; medical error and quality of care; just use of societal resources; and bioethical dilemmas in clinical practice, medical missions and interventions, and international research and health policies. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
[Sociology 162. Medical Sociology]
Mary-Jo Del Vecchio Good
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Explores current topics in medical sociology organized around the theme of global and local environments of risk and trust in medicine and health care. Examines how medical education, knowledge, practice, research, technology, and health policies are culturally shaped and institutionally organized. Analyzes the culture and political economy of American medicine through comparative and global perspectives, utilizing country specific illustrations and global health examples. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12.
Sociology 165. Inequalities in Health Care
Mary Ruggie (Kennedy School)
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 1.
Asks why certain social groups are at greater risk for more severe health problems (e.g., infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, cancer) and yet receive unequal health care in the US. Examines what best practices foster adequate delivery of healthcare services, mutual respect between patient and provider, and healthy living. Considers the role of government, the private sector, family and community.
Sociology 190. Life and Death in the US: Medicine and Disease in Social Context
Nicholas A. Christakis
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 3.
Explores how biological and social factors jointly conspire to determine the health of individuals and populations. Examines how medical care, social networks, and socioeconomic inequality influence illness, recovery, and death.
[*Sociology 260. The Sociology of Global Health]
Mary-Jo Del Vecchio Good
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines the historical transformation and social organization of the modern global health movement, its political economy and diverse cultural contexts. Cases include institutional architecture and financing, medical humanitarianism, mental health, and gender /reproductive health initiatives. Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Permission of instructor required.
Sociology 390. Health and Social Structure
Nicholas A. Christakis (Medical School) 4459
Full course. Fall: Th., 1–2:30; Spring: Th., 1–3.
Considers advanced topics in how supra-individual factors, such as social networks, neighborhoods, and health care organizations, contribute to individual health and longevity. Students develop and present original research plans and research. Note: Course meets at Harvard Medical School.