The Body in Global Histories of Medicine

Spring 2021

WELCOME

This class surveys the body, health, and healing in ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern periods. We will compare regional and transnational practices to learn about how physicians, laypeople, women, and men understood and recovered from illnesses. Each week moves thematically with different bodily processes—from internal process of balancing and flowing to social movements such as trading and transplanting. By comparing how different people understand and inhabit the body, students will develop new research questions to rethink what it means to study the body at all.

Where most global histories of medicine sample representative cases within national and regional contexts, we will sample cases across time and place to engage with disparate historiographical traditions. Each week takes on different themes of practice, process, classification, ontology, technology, techniques, and theory to offer new genealogies of reading the body.

One of the central questions of the course is: how did the “same” body look so profoundly different across time and place? To answer this question, we will meet a range of individuals from around the world. From medieval Sufi priests to contemporary acupuncturists, many have contributed to diverse healing practices. Some of these practices are recognized today, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and others have been forgotten, such as Galenic medicine. Yet, they still to shape many of the questions in modern medicine and science that seek to understand the many mysteries of health and disease.

 

Instructor	Dr. Lan A. Li, LL@rice.edu
Office	whereby.com/LL-office
Office Hours	Thursday 2-4pm
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TA	Emily Lampert, eal12@rice.edu
Office	whereby.com/lampert-office-hours
Office Hours	Tuesday 2-4pm
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ASSIGNMENTS

The following set of assignments are an opportunity for you to craft your own narrative about the body in global histories of medicine. In the beginning of the semester, you will choose one visual primary source and use it to guide new sets of research questions about how the image was made, who made it, the kinds of ideas that it engendered. Keep in mind the three themes that shape the arch of the class, including inherent assumptions that shape what bodies look like, illness causation, and treatments.

Assignment #1 RECONSTRUCTION & FIVE FIELD NOTES (20%)

This first assignment will engage with a close reading of a kind of “body”—either non-human or human—by recreating it. For instance, you can choose an image from the National Library’s Hidden Treasure exhibition, or another image or model of your choice. In your process of reconstruction, consider the original scale of the image, how it was made, what materials were used, and who was involved. Then, to your best ability, acquire the materials to reproduce the image to scale. Provide a 500-word description of your process, introducing the image/object before relaying the liberties you took, as well as three field notes. Images should be approved by the instructor beforehand.

Assignment #2 RESEARCH/WRITTEN ESSAY (25%)

In this second assignment, embed your primary source within a broader historical context. What was the afterlife of the image? How did it change through trade and translation? Further, consider how these moments of trade and translation reframe conceptions of the “global” through local or personal encounters. Keep in mind how at different historical periods objects like drugs, food, organs, created particular networks of knowledge and the political conditions shaped different ways of knowing, seeing, touching, and describing the “body.” Research essays should be 3500 words. Prepare an outline to be approved by the instructor.

Assignment #3 AUDIO ESSAY (25%)

Based on the research questions you developed in your previous assignments, produce a 5-minute podcast with a thoroughly-research script of no more than 800 words not including references. The goal of this assignment is to critically address assumptions about how knowledge about the body was engendered in different historical periods. Consider what the sound medium can add to your argument/message. The same rules of avoiding cliché and qualifying words like the “body” apply. Topics should be proposed beforehand and approved by the instructor.