Category: Classes

Gerontology Scholarship Due Date Approaching

The Center for Creative Retirement Gerontology Award applications are due Tuesday, November 21, 2023 at 11:59 PM.

This scholarship is awarded to encourage CofC undergraduate students to study Gerontology.  Students who are of junior or senior standing majoring or minoring in Sociology, Psychology, Biology, Public Health, or Exercise Science may apply. Students must maintain a full-time status and a minimum GPA of 3.0

Gerontology Scholarship Application

Commentary: Epidemics past and present provide context for coronavirus

Jacob Steere-Williams, CofC History professor, wrote about the history of epidemics in an editorial for the Post and Courier. His class, History 291: Disease, Medicine, and History, counts toward the Medical Humanities minor.

I often kick off the semester in my undergraduate classes at the College of Charleston with a simple question: What disease are you most afraid of?

The replies are predictable; Ebola, bubonic plague and HIV/AIDS usually top the list, though sometimes a wry public health student will mention cholera or dengue fever. I use this exercise to open up a conversation with students about an uncomfortable truth: We rarely fear the diseases most likely to make us sick or kill us. The leading causes of death in the United States today are heart disease, cancer and accidents. Students never mention accidents. Read More.

Special Topics Classes for Fall 2020

Hi all! We don’t have a lot, but I do want to let you know that
EDFS 410, 420, and 430 as courses that fit the medical humanities minor (see criteria down below). These are “Characteristics of Students with Mental Disabilities,” “Characteristics of Students with Emotional Disabilities,” and “Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities.”

Also, the Women’s and Gender Studies class, WGST 120, “The Sexuality of Childbirth,” will count toward the minor. Just please let me know (rogerskb@cofc.edu) if you’re definitely taking it, as I have to fill out a special topics petition.

Also, Allison Foley will be teaching MEDH 200 over the summer- stay tuned for a flier and more information.

Special Topics courses for MEDH credit!

In addition to the courses listed in the catalogue, you may take:
HIST 116.17, 20474 TR 12:15-1:30, Steere-Williams

Epidemics and Revolutions. The recent global epidemic crisis of Ebola provides a backdrop for the fascinating historical questions we will ask in this course, of how the social experience and cultural understanding of disease have shaped modern global history. We will explore how both chronic and infectious diseases have played a fundamental role in the development of modern modes of governance, public health, modern technologies, and a global economy. We will also examine how disease illuminates social attitudes about class, race, and colonialism in the period from the Enlightenment to the present. Using diverse examples such as cholera outbreaks in Europe, bubonic plague in India, syphilis in Africa, yellow fever in North America and the Caribbean, and HIV/AIDS across the globe, this course demonstrates that the historical analysis of disease is integral to understanding both “modernity” and “globalization”.

Our mission

We have received a number of emails about courses counting for medical humanities.  In lieu of a website, let me provide our mission here:

To count for the Medical Humanities minor, courses should address a human dimension of clinical medicine, public health, translational research, or medical technology. This includes
• human expression about medicine and health, including art, literature, music, art history etc
• study of the human factors affecting medical practice, including history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, classics, and religion, and
• analyses of debates surrounding medicine and health research, including philosophy, economics, and law.

If you feel that a course fulfills these requirements, feel free to email Dr. Rogers at rogerskb@cofc.edu

 

We ARE in the course catalogue- promise!

Hi everyone!  We are very excited to roll out our new medical humanities minor at the College of Charleston in Spring of 2020.  Of course, any class you take or have taken will “count” as part of the minor, so this should be easy and a great selling point for pre-health professions and programs of study.  Check us out here.

Stay tuned for exciting health humanities news from Charleston and beyond!