Course Description
Exploration of drugs and medicines as commodities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How different cultures and societies across the world have shaped the meanings of drugs and medicine, and how drugs and medicines have conversely influenced peoples' habits and social relationships across the globe.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In addition to completing the reading and viewing the films
required of undergraduates, graduate students will be asked to
(1) write two book reviews of the major texts used in the class,
and (2) complete a 20-page research paper related to the themes
discussed in class. Graduate students will be responsible for
further in-depth readings appropriate to the graduate curriculum.
Athena Title
A Global History of Drugs
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HIST 4445W
Prerequisite
Any 2000-level HIST course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will help students develop the abilities to read, think, discuss, and write critically. The aim is not to memorize facts, but to learn how to engage with texts. We will practice how to situate texts within a particular body of scholarship as well as how to use them to help us think more deeply about the role of drugs and medicines in the modern world. The relationship between instructor and student is different in this process; each of us will try to come to an understanding about the history of drugs and medicines, and each will also attempt to pose a set of questions that directs our thinking. The method begins with reading entire books, absorbing the message, structure, and content, and thinking about whether or not these texts satisfactorily speak to the problems at hand. The quality of each class depends on the preparation of each individual student before each session and the active participation of each student during each class. After completing this course, students will be able to critically evaluate how scholars have interpreted and understood the disparate social, cultural, and economic meanings of drugs and medicines across the world.
Topical Outline
Part I: Introduction and Methodologies (Commodity history as method) Part II: From Local Plants to Global Markets Part III: The Making of the Drug Industry Part IV: The Construction of Culture and Addiction Part V: Research/Writing/Presentations
Syllabus