16921

SoSe 22: Are we in a healthy state? Public health in critical perspective

Daniel Louis Nethery

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Subject: Governments the world over have taken extraordinary measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Those measures have given renewed significance to long-standing questions over the connection between public health and medicine, the interrelation between technology and social change, the role of medical experts in formulating social policy, and the ways governments can use technology to intervene in our lives. Program: We will sketch the history of public health with a focus on Germany. We will cover the connection between smallpox vaccination in the introduction of health insurance under Bismarck; the rise of eugenics as a theory and its practice in Nazi Germany; the transformation of health care as a consequence of war; the symbolic importance of public health during the cold war; and recent progress in medical technology and the ethical challenges which it poses. We will intersperse our readings of classic texts with new writings on topics as varied as prenatal testing, abortion and family policy to blood transfusion and statistics. By the end of the semester you will have gained an insight into the rich literature on the history of medicine and a nuanced understanding of critical approaches to public health. Is this course right for me? The course is open to students in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies. There are no prerequisites. Workload and assessment: To qualify for 5 ECTS points you will need to attend the course regularly, engage with the course materials, and pass the final written examination. Schließen