Note: This is the 2023–2024 eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or .
Program Requirements
The Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine presents as a complex network of institutions, cultures, and political relations embedded in the institutions, cultures and political relations of the larger society. Courses are divided into three groups: History of Medicine, Anthropology of Medicine, and Sociology of Medicine. The Minor consists of 18 credits. Students are required to take at least one course in each of the three groups.
Note: No overlap is permitted with courses counting towards the student’s major concentration.
Complementary Courses (18 credits)
18 credits from the following (at least 3 credits from each of the three groups):
History of Medicine
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HIST 249 Health and the Healer in Western History (3 credits)
Overview
History : The natural history of health and disease and the development of the healing arts, from antiquity to the beginning of modern times. The rise of "western" medicine. Health and healing as gradually evolving aspects of society and culture.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Weisz, George; Kroupa, Sebestian (Fall)
Note: Also available to first-year medical students in their options program.
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HIST 319 The Scientific Revolution (3 credits)
Overview
History : The intellectual and cultural history of science and technology, in Europe and in the wider world, from the time of Leonardo to the time of Newton (c. 1500-c.1700).
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Dew, Nicholas (Fall)
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HIST 335 Science and Medicine in Canada (3 credits)
Overview
History : The social and intellectual history of science and medicine in Canada, from early exploration, through the rise of learned societies, universities and professional organizations, to World War II.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 356 Medicine in the Medieval West (3 credits)
Overview
History : The history of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine in western Europe in the Middle Ages (ca. AD 300-1500), with particular attention to their social, intellectual, cultural and religious context.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 381 Colonial Africa (3 credits)
Overview
History : An overview of the history of foreign intervention and anticolonial resistance in 19th and 20th century Africa. Topics include: theories of colonialism, the scramble for Africa, colonialism and disease, indirect rule, labour, nationalism and resistance, and changing gender roles.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 424 Gender, Sexuality and Medicine (3 credits)
Overview
History : Gender, sexuality, and medicine since the colonial era, with a focus on North American experience. Topics will include reproductive medicine (puberty, childbirth, fertility control, menopause), changing perceptions of men's and women's health needs and risks, and ideas about sexual behaviour and identity.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Prerequisite: A 300-level History course in gender, sexuality or medicine or permission of instructor.
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HIST 430 Topics in Modern Medicine (3 credits)
Overview
History : Selected topics in the history of medicine in the 19th, 20th and/or 21st centuries will be explored through discussion of primary and secondary historical sources.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 449 Medicine in the Ancient World (3 credits)
Overview
History : The evolution of ideas about the human body, disease, and therapeutics, and the diverse practices of medicine in Graeco-Roman antiquity (ca 800BC - ca 600CE), with particular attention given to their social, political, cultural and religious context.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 452 Topics in Pre-Modern Medicine (3 credits)
Overview
History : The history of the evolution of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine prior to the advent of modern clinical and laboratory medicine in the 19th c., with particular attention to social, political, cultural and religious context.
Terms: Winter 2024
Instructors: Kroupa, Sebestian (Winter)
- HIST 457 Topics in Medical History (3 credits)
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HIST 558 Modern Medicine: Seminar (3 credits)
Overview
History : The emergence of scientific medicine, medical professionalization, the development of public health and the process of medical specialization since 1700.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 559 Modern Medicine: Research (3 credits)
Overview
History : Supervised design, research, writing, and discussion of a major research paper on a theme in the history of modern medicine since 1700.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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HIST 567D1 Seminar: Medieval Medicine (3 credits)
Overview
History : Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Students must register for both HIST 567D1 and HIST 567D2
No credit will be given for this course unless both HIST 567D1 and HIST 567D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
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HIST 567D2 Seminar: Medieval Medicine (3 credits)
Overview
History : Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship. The sequel to this course is HIST 496.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Prerequisite: HIST 567D1
No credit will be given for this course unless both HIST 567D1 and HIST 567D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms
Anthropology of Medicine
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ANTH 227 Medical Anthropology (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Beliefs and practices concerning sickness and healing are examined in a variety of Western and non-Western settings. Special attention is given to cultural constructions of the body and to theories of disease causation and healing efficacy. Topics include international health, medical pluralism, transcultural psychiatry, and demography.
Terms: Fall 2023, Summer 2024
Instructors: Collu, Samuele (Fall) Gamarra, Jorge (Summer)
Fall
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ANTH 302 New Horizons in Medical Anthropology (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Using recent ethnographies as textual material, this course will cover theoretical and methodological developments in medical anthropology since the early 1990's. Topics include a reconsideration of the relationship between culture and biology, medical pluralism revisited, globalization and health and disease, and social implications of new biomedical technologies.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Meyers, Todd (Fall)
Winter
Prerequisite: ANTH 227
Restriction: Anthropology program students.
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ANTH 314 Psychological Anthropology 01 (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : A survey of current theories and methods employed in psychological anthropology. Some areas considered are: cross-cultural studies of socialization and personality development; cultural factors in mental illness; individual adaptations to rapid socio-cultural change.
Terms: Winter 2024
Instructors: Collu, Samuele (Winter)
Fall
Prerequisite: Any Anthropology course
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ANTH 325 Anthropology of the Self (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : A review of the anthropological problematization of the self. The course examines ethnographically how illness, mental illness, pharmaceuticals, psychoanalysis, possession, death, violence and colonization disrupt our commonsense notions of the self and its relation to the other.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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ANTH 407 Anthropology of the Body (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : This course will survey theoretical approaches used over the past 100 years, and then focus on contemporary debates using case studies. The nature/culture mind/ body, subject/object, self/other dichotomies central to most work of the body will be problematized.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Hyde, Sandra (Fall)
Winter
Prerequisites: ANTH 227 and (1) 300-level anthropology course, and Honours/Major/Minor status in Anthropology or Social Studies of Medicine, or permission of instructor.
Restriction: U3 status or permission of instructor
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ANTH 408 Sensory Ethnography (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Anthropology of the senses through the study of ethnographic film, photography and sound. Topics include: the role of senses and emotion in the production of knowledge, non-word based ways of knowing, and the relation between image and text in anthropology.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Gamarra, Jorge (Fall)
Prerequisite: U3 students in Anthropology or permission of instructor
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ANTH 423 Mind, Brain and Psychopathology (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Evolutionary origins of the human mind and the 'social brain', and the psychopathologies that are said to provide access to this evolutionary history, through the perspective of the anthropology of science and psychiatry.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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ANTH 438 Topics in Medical Anthropology (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Conceptions of health and illness and the form and meaning that illness take are reflections of a particular social and cultural context. Examination of the metaphoric use of the body, comparative approaches to healing, and the relationship of healing systems to the political and economic order and to development.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 227 and Honours/Major/Minor status in Anthropology or Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine or permission of instructor.
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ANTH 480 Special Topic 5 (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Supervised reading in advanced special topics under direction of a member of staff.
Terms: Fall 2023, Winter 2024
Instructors: Scott, Colin (Fall) Ruiz-Serna, Daniel (Winter)
Prerequisite: Completion of all available courses relevant to the topic and consent of the instructor
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ANTH 481 Special Topic 6 (3 credits)
Overview
Anthropology : Supervised reading in advanced special topics under direction of a member of staff.
Terms: Fall 2023, Winter 2024
Instructors: Manoukian, Setrag (Winter)
Prerequisite: Completion of all available courses relevant to the topic and consent of the instructor
Sociology of Medicine
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SOCI 225 Medicine and Health in Modern Society (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Socio-medical problems and ways in which sociological analysis and research are being used to understand and deal with them. Canadian and Québec problems include: poverty and health; mental illness; aging; death and dying; professionalism; health service organization.
Terms: Winter 2024
Instructors: Dennis, Alexis (Winter)
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SOCI 309 Health and Illness (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Health and illness as social rather than purely bio-medical phenomena. Topics include: studies of ill persons, health care occupations and organizations; poverty and health; inequalities in access to and use of health services; recent policies, ideologies, and problems in reform of health services organization.
Terms: Winter 2024
Instructors: Quesnel Vallée, Amélie (Winter)
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SOCI 310 Sociology of Mental Health (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Three broad areas of sociological research on mental health and illness: definitions and measurement; social origins; and societal responses. Mental health and illness as a product of social circumstances.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Dennis, Alexis (Fall)
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SOCI 365 Health and Development (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Main concepts and controversies linking health to broader social and economic conditions in low income countries. Topics include the demographic and epidemiological transitions, the health and wealth conundrum, the social determinants of health, health as an economic development strategy, and the impact of the AIDS pandemic.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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SOCI 390 Gender and Health (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Key conceptual and substantive issues in gender and health since c1950: stratified medicalization of women's and men's health; social movements in health including the women's health movement; gender inequality in morbidity and mortality; gender, power and control in patient/physician interactions; embodied experience; politics and policies of gender and health.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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SOCI 508 Medical Sociology and Social Psychiatry (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : The social construction of mental illness and disease, the personal and professional definition and recognition of illness, the distribution and determinants of illness, disease, sickness in the population, and the politics of medical research.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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SOCI 515 Medicine and Society (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : The sociology of health and illness. Reading in areas of interest, such as: the sociology of illness, health services occupations, organizational settings of health care, the politics of change in national health service systems, and contemporary ethical issues in medical care and research.
Terms: Fall 2023
Instructors: Cambrosio, Alberto (Fall)
Prerequisite: Undergraduate students require permission of instructor
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SOCI 525 Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Comparative perspective to illustrate processes involved in the development and evolution of health care systems around the world. Countries examined will represent different welfare state regimes, health care system typologies, levels of development and wealth.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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SOCI 538 Selected Topics in Sociology of Biomedical Knowledge (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : The seminar will examine recent work in the sociology of biomedical knowledge. It will focus on the technological shaping of biomedical knowledge, i.e., on the impact of new technologies and equipments on the development of biomedical knowledge.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
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SOCI 588 Biosociology/Biodemography (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : This course will explore linkages between social and biological systems, their influence on health and well-being over the life course, and on health disparities. Topics include classical sociological approaches to biosocial processes, sociobiology (reductionist, but population-based), and newer demographic studies on gen-environment, epigenetic, and stress-metabolic/allostatic processes.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Bachelor of Arts & Science—2023-2024 (last updated Sep. 12, 2023) (disclaimer)
