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HHUM 307Concepts of Health and Disease in Western Medical History

Units
0.50
Faculty
Arts
Subject
Health Humanities
Cross-listed
MEDVL 307

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: scheduled, 2 lecture sections. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

This course introduces students to three paradigms in Western medical history, characterized by the primary clinical locations at which they were practiced: bedside medicine (a holistic approach), hospital medicine (a localized approach), and laboratory medicine (a lab-based approach). It does this by exploring the origins of Western medicine in premodern and medieval contexts. Students will engage in close readings of primary and secondary sources to explore how and why certain diseases, like cancer and tuberculosis, were understood differently within these three paradigms. They will learn to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue by applying humanities-based methodologies and vocabularies to the study of health and disease. By focusing on historical case studies and asking students to look at how ancient, medieval, and premodern people conceived of health, the course shows how all perceptions of well-being, including our own, are socially constructed and in constant negotiation.

Prerequisites

None listed.

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Winter 2027 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
SectionClassEnrolledMeets
LEC 08175380 / 35Online or by arrangement
LEC 701801036 / 9999Online or by arrangement

Reviewed on UW Flow

67% liked it75% easy50% useful

From 3 ratings and 2 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • Taken in Fall 2025. I thought this was a really interesting course. The midterm and Exam were online/open-book. Easy as long as you keep up with the modules.
    Assignments were marked harder than expected, but once you get a sense of what the prof is looking for, it's not that hard.
    The prof is genuinely less than useless. 0 discussion forum answers. If Dr. McCarthy is "teaching," expect to basically do everything blind.
    Because it's online, this would be a great class to take over a co-op term. Finished >90

    Apr 2026 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • It's not impossible to score in the 90's in this course, but the prof will make you want to rip your hair out. For starters, she never answers the discussion boards. I don't know why she bothered opening one up. And there's no contact information posted for the TA's, while the prof is nearly impossible to reach by email. It's clear she doesn't care about this course. Every assignment is unrelated, and the rubrics ask for so much detail, yet the instructions are vague and the word count is limited. She is also a hard marker and will never tell you why she removed marks.
    There is a capstone assignment that's split into 3 parts and that feels unrelated to all of the modules we focused on.…

    Dec 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

Calendar versions

Undergraduate Calendar