HIST 179A
History of Medicine: Historic Roots of Healing Arts
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Introduction to traditions, practices, goals, and myths of Western healing professions from time of ancient Greeks to Renaissance. Topics range from Hippocrates, Galen, and scholars at Alexandria to healing at Epidaurus and Salerno, contributions of medieval Muslim and Jewish doctors, rise of healing professions, medical faculties, nursing orders, and hospitals. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - I was initially intimidated entering this class as a STEM major (I took this class as a global health minor) since my history knowledge is quite lacking, but I ended up really enjoying this class overall for its overall workload and the content! The class covered a good variety of Latin American medical experiments that I would have never learned about in any other class, and it was interesting to see different angles/approaches to analyzing these historical events. One important thing to note is that attendance is MANDATORY! Professor O'Brien was seriously the BEST because she was more than well-versed in this area but also happily took discussion contributions from our class of ~40. While I didn't always have something to say in class, lots of other classmates did and it was intriguing to see everyone's contributions. It wasn't necessary to talk in class but it would definitely help your grade if you did make consistent contributions. Workload was VERY light in this class -- only some readings to do per class (that I skimmed) that required at least two annotations (I often did 5+ just to cover all my bases and because the readings were long), occasional assignments (graded VERY leniently and due at the end of the quarter), and a final paper (only 4-5 pages). She's a pretty easy and forgiving grader/instructor, and I wish I had gotten to talk to her more. Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this class for every reason possible! :))
Winter 2024 - I was initially intimidated entering this class as a STEM major (I took this class as a global health minor) since my history knowledge is quite lacking, but I ended up really enjoying this class overall for its overall workload and the content! The class covered a good variety of Latin American medical experiments that I would have never learned about in any other class, and it was interesting to see different angles/approaches to analyzing these historical events. One important thing to note is that attendance is MANDATORY! Professor O'Brien was seriously the BEST because she was more than well-versed in this area but also happily took discussion contributions from our class of ~40. While I didn't always have something to say in class, lots of other classmates did and it was intriguing to see everyone's contributions. It wasn't necessary to talk in class but it would definitely help your grade if you did make consistent contributions. Workload was VERY light in this class -- only some readings to do per class (that I skimmed) that required at least two annotations (I often did 5+ just to cover all my bases and because the readings were long), occasional assignments (graded VERY leniently and due at the end of the quarter), and a final paper (only 4-5 pages). She's a pretty easy and forgiving grader/instructor, and I wish I had gotten to talk to her more. Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this class for every reason possible! :))