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.
Athena Title
A Global History of Drugs
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HIST 4445, HIST 6445
Non-Traditional Format
The W suffix is used for courses taught as writing intensive, which means that the course includes substantial and ongoing writing assignments that: a) facilitate learning; b) teach the communication values of a discipline—for example, its practices of argument, evidence, credibility, and format; c) support writing as a process; and d) prepare students for further writing in their academic work, in graduate school, and in professional life. Writing instruction and assignments are integral to the class’s learning objectives, and the instructor (and/or the teaching assistant assigned to the course) will be closely involved in supporting students as writers. More specifically, writing-intensive classes: • involve students in informal writing assignments that promote course learning; • stage and sequence assignments to encourage writing as a process of creating and communicating knowledge; • maximize opportunities for guidance, feedback, and revision; • teach the writing conventions that are inseparable from modes of inquiry in a discipline; • make writing a substantive component of the overall course grade to underscore the value of writing to the course, the discipline, and student learning.
Pre or Corequisite
Any HIST or ENGL or BIOL or CMLT course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This writing-intensive 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 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 their 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. Students will be expected to produce 2 analytical papers during the semester and a final research paper/project at the end. 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