Medicine and Culture

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

Standard

An average of 10 hours per week

None.

None.

Students enrolling in this subject must have completed a Bachelor of arts degree or equivalent.

None.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Public health, a discipline in every sense of the word, has been instrumental in transforming society and culture. Medicine and Culture will explore these transformations, from the old world of dirt and disease to the new world of hyper-cleanliness. Central to our exploration of public health will be the role that it has played in reducing morbidity and extending longevity, the subject of considerable debate with relevance to many aspects of contemporary Australia. Subject matter that we explore in our weekly seminars includes the health transition, the 'Great Clean Up' of filthy urban spaces, transformations in notions of disease and risk, regulating bodies in time and space, and the attempt to use public health to reform many areas of public and private life. We conclude the course with a series of case studies that explore the uses of public health interventions in the lives of indigenous people in Australia, and in developing countries across the world.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• have a critical understanding of the role of public health policy and intervention in social health outcomes.
• have an understanding of the role of the state and individual liberty in the history of public health.
• have an appreciation of the role of culture in public health regimes.
• have refined skills in historical contextual analysis.
• have extended skills in inter-disciplinary approaches to socio-historical analysis.
• have a refined capacity to understand and analyse complex systems over time.
• have developed skills in historical research.

A 1500 word seminar diary 30 per cent (due at the end of semester), a 500 word essay proposal and plan 10 per cent (due mid-semester), a 3000 word research essay 50 per cent (due at the end of semester) and class participation 10 per cent.

Hurdle Requirement: Students are required to attend a minimum of 75% of classes in order to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 2% per working day. After 5 working days late assessment will not be marked. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

to be advised at the commencement of semester

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• Comprehend the subtle interplay between science and medicine, and culture and society
• have developed analytical and communication skills
• have the ability to conduct independent research, using primary and secondary sources to mount an effective argument.