| Unit name | Health and Medicine in African History: Actors, Institutions, Ideas |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST20147 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Ncube |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Our Special Fields give you the opportunity to work at an advanced level alongside a single academic and a specialist area of research. Intensively taught through seminars only, they are designed to provide you with hands-on experience of how knowledge is produced in the discipline of History.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Our Special Fields involve the application of the full spectrum of core historical competencies within a narrower field of study. In this sense, they are designed to prepare you to undertake independent research for yourself by showing you how practicing historians work with sources, historiographies, methodologies, and concepts within a particular specialism.
An overview of content:
This unit explores the making of plural healthcare practices in modern Africa since the 1850s through case studies of key institutions, actors and ideas that have characterised the ways in which health and sickness are defined and managed in an intercultural context. Historically, quests for therapy and wellbeing have been associated with the emergence and development of new institutions, professions, and domains of knowledge. In modern African history, these initially developed in the context of colonisation, cultural encounters, and changing disease contexts. The advent of Western and scientific medicine meant the restructuring of indigenous healing practices, the rise of new institutional interfaces of medicine (clinics and hospitals), and the emergence of new medical professions such as medical auxiliaries – with a distinctly African character, while continuing to bear the influences of developments from elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, constructions of Africa as a diseased continent made it a popular destination for western missionaries and international development organisations, leading to diversity and division in the institutional and conceptual profile of the continent’s public health system. Meanwhile, contesting cultures of care remained unresolved, bringing to the fore the complexities of intercultural medical practice. What were the outcomes? How did innovations in community medicine and primary healthcare that were so characteristic of many African localities during the twentieth century emerge in conditions of inequality? How did the continent become the arena for the world’s first successful heart transplant in 1967? What historical and institutional contexts placed Africa in the firing line of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, but shielded the continent from the COVID-19 onslaught? Using a variety of canonical and more recent texts, primary documents, films and photographs, digital resources and popular literature, this unit offers unique insights into the history of Africa as it unfolded during a period of rapid transformation.
How will you be different as a result of this unit?
Special Field units will enhance your capacity to build arguments with primary sources, properly located within appropriate theories, concepts, methods, and historiographies.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
3500-word essay (50%) [ILOs 1-5].
Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-5].
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the format or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are confirmed by the School/Centre shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. HIST20147).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
