| Unit name | Decolonising Health (Level H Reflective History Unit) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST30014 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Saha |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Modern medicine has been ‘the greatest benefit to mankind’, a universal and unmitigated force for good. Or has it? In this unit we will reflect on how historians have conceptualised medical histories by examining the morally ambiguous use of Western biomedicine in colonial contexts. In the process we will question some prevailing cultural assumptions about Western medicine: Was it always scientific? Was it always beneficial? Was it always distinct and separate to indigenous, ‘traditional’ medical practices? We will also explore the relationship between medicine and colonial power, considering the ways in which medicine enabled colonialism. We will think about the different ways in which the indigenous, colonized populations interacted with Western medicine, from resistance to engagement. Through these discussions we will contemplate how different historical studies into colonial medicine influence our understandings of global health disparities today.
By the end of the unit students should have:
One 1-hour introductory session followed by five 2-hour classes.
24-hour seen written examination (summative, 100%)
The examination will assess the student’s ability to reflect on the particular and unique skills that historians acquire, to reflect on the way in which they apply those skills to a specific task, to convey that understanding to others in their writing, to demonstrate an awareness of how those skills might be applied more generally, and to demonstrate their knowledge of the history of colonial medicine.
David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India.
Megan Vaughan, Curing their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness.
Warwick Anderson, Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines.
Lenore Manderson, Sickness and the State: Health and Illness in Colonial Malaya.
Poonam Bala (eds) Biomedicine as a Contested Site: Some Revelations in Imperial Contexts.
Pati Biswamoy and Mark Harrison (eds) Health, Medicine and Empire: Perspectives on Colonial India.
