History of Science and Medicine
The Graduate Program in the History of Science and Medicine is a semi-autonomous graduate track within the Department of History. The program’s students are awarded degrees in History, with a concentration in the History of Science and Medicine.
207 Hall of Graduate Studies, 432.1365
www.yale.edu/hshm/
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Daniel Kevles
Director of Graduate Studies
John Harley Warner (L-132 Sterling Hall of Medicine, 785.4338)
Faculty
Daniel Kevles (History), Susan Lederer (History of Medicine), Ole Molvig (History), David Musto (Child Study Center), Naomi Rogers (Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies; History of Medicine), Frank Snowden (History), Bruno Strasser (History of Medicine), William Summers (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry), Frank Turner (History), John Harley Warner (History of Medicine; History)
Affiliated Faculty
Toby Appel (Librarian for Medical History), Cynthia Connolly (Nursing), Joseph Fruton (Emeritus, Biochemistry), Robert Gordon (Geology & Geophysics; Applied Mechanics), Veronika Grimm (Classics), Dimitri Gutas (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations), Ann Hanson (Classics), Bettyann Kevles (History), Jennifer Klein (History), Martin Klein (Emeritus, Physics), Michael McBride (Chemistry), Joanne Meyerowitz (History), David Miller (Humanities), Jill North (Philosophy), Sherwin Nuland (Surgery), Franklyn Prochaska (History), Kevin Repp (Curator, Modern European Books & Manuscripts, Beinecke Library), Cynthia Russett (History), Gordon Shepherd (Neuroscience), Rebecca Tannenbaum (History)
Fields of Study
All subjects and periods in the history of science and history of medicine. Special fields represented include American science and medicine; Asian science and medicine; Arabic science and medicine; disease, therapeutics, psychiatry, drug abuse, and public health; physics; science and national security; science and law, science and religion, life sciences, human genetics, eugenics, molecular biology, biotechnology, microbiology, intellectual property, gender, race, and science/medicine; bioethics and medical research.
Special Admissions Requirements
Applicants should have a strong undergraduate background in history and in a science relevant to the direction of their graduate interests. These requirements will be applied with flexibility, and outstanding performance in any field pertinent to the program will be taken into consideration.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Either French and German or two languages relevant to the student’s research interests and approved by the director of graduate studies of the program. Students may fulfill the requirement either by passing an approved language course for credit or by passing a language test administered by the program faculty.
Students will ordinarily take twelve term courses during the first two years. All students will normally take the two-term core seminar sequence HSHM 701a/702b or equivalents, HSHM 710b, four additional graduate seminars in history of science or medicine, and at least one graduate course in a field of history outside of science or medicine. The remaining courses can be taken in history of medicine or science, history, science, or any other field of demonstrated special relevance to the student’s scholarly objectives. Two of the twelve courses must be graduate research seminars in the History of Science and Medicine.
Students who enter having previously completed graduate work may obtain some credit toward the completion of the total course requirement, the amount being contingent on the extent and nature of the previous work and its fit with their intended course of study at Yale.
All students are expected, prior to entering on their dissertation work, to develop a broad general knowledge of the discipline. This knowledge may be acquired through a combination of course work taken at Yale or elsewhere, regular participation in the Program colloquia and workshops, and preparation for the qualifying oral examination.
Students will normally spend the summer following their second year preparing for the oral Qualifying Examination, which will be taken in the third year, preferably during the first half of it.
The Qualifying Examination will cover four areas of chosen concentration:
1 & 2. two fields in the history of science and/or history of medicine;
3. a field in an area of history outside of medicine and/or science;
4. a field of special interest, the content and boundaries to be established with the adviser for the field. The student may elect to do a second field in history outside of history of science or medicine; or a field in one of the sciences; or a field in a subject such as bioethics, health policy, public health, medical anthropology, medical sociology, science and law, science and national security, science and religion, science and culture, biotechnology, gender, science and medicine; race, science and medicine, or cultural studies.
During their first year, all students will be advised by the director of graduate studies. Students are encouraged to discuss their interests and program of study with other members of the faculty. At the beginning of the second year, each student is to obtain an adviser who will provide guidance in selecting courses and preparing for the Qualifying Examination. The adviser may also offer help with the development of ideas for the dissertation, but students are free to choose someone else as the dissertation supervisor when the time comes to do so.
Students are encouraged to begin thinking about their dissertation topics during the second year. They are required to prepare a Dissertation Prospectus as soon as possible following the Qualifying Examination and to defend the Prospectus orally before being admitted to full candidacy for the doctoral degree.
Teaching is an important part of the professional preparation of graduate students in History of Science and Medicine. Students will teach, usually in the third and fourth years of study. Students are also encouraged to participate in the programs to develop teaching skills offered by the Graduate School.
M.D./Ph.D. and J.D./Ph.D. Joint-Degree Programs
Students may pursue a doctorate in History of Science and Medicine jointly with a degree in Medicine or Law. Standard graduate financial support is provided for the doctoral phase of work toward such a joint degree. Candidates for the joint degree in Law must apply for admission to both the Law School and the Graduate School. Information about the joint degree program with Medicine can be obtained from the Web site of the Yale Medical Scientist Training Program Office in the School of Medicine (http://info.med.yale.edu/mdphd/phd/index.html) and from the Web site of the History of Medicine and Science (www.med.yale.edu/histmed).
Master’s Degrees
M.Phil. and M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). See Degree Requirements.
Master’s Degree Program
The terminal M.A. program is designed particularly for those who plan to combine teaching or scholarship in these fields with a professional career in medicine or science. Students who enroll in the terminal master’s degree program leading to the M.A. are expected to complete six term courses during two terms of study, to fulfill one foreign language requirement, and to submit an acceptable master’s paper. Course work must include the graduate seminar HSHM 701a/702b and one additional graduate seminar in history of science or medicine. The remaining courses are to be chosen in consultation with the director of graduate studies.
For more information about the History of Science and Medicine program and admission to the Graduate School, see www.yale.edu/hshm/ and www.yale.edu/graduateschool/admissions/; or write to Barbara McKay (barbara.mckay@yale.edu).
Courses
[HSHM 622au,Science, Technology, and Modernity.]
[HSHM 623bu,History of the Modern Sciences in Society.]
[HSHM 624bu,Science, Feminism, and Modernity.]
[HSHM 625au,Women and Medicine in America from the Colonial Era to the Present.]
HSHM 631bu,The Cultures of Western Medicine: A Historical Introduction. John Harley Warner.
MW 10.30–11.20
A survey of medical thought, practice, institutions, and practitioners from classical antiquity through the present. Changing concepts of health and disease in Europe and America explored in their social, cultural, economic, scientific, technological, and ethical contexts. Also HIST 937bu.
HSHM 633bu,Introduction to the History of Mathematics: Certainty, Uncertainty, and the Infinite. William Summers.
Th 1.30–3.20
This seminar course considers the history of several mathematical topics from antiquity until the present time. It is not a mathematics course, but rather treats mathematics as examples of intellectual problems rather than technical accomplishments. The graduate students in this seminar are required to complete more extensive research papers, both at midterm and at the end of the course (approximately double in length), than the undergraduates. These papers are evaluated at a significantly more stringent level, in terms of both research methods and analytical sophistication, than the undergraduate written work. Also HIST 916bu.
HSHM 635bu,Science, Arms, and the State. Daniel Kevles.
M 1.30–3.20
A history of chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons in the twentieth century that focuses on the integration in the United States of national security policy making, scientific research, and military innovation, including its consequences for the scientific community, the civilian economy, public attitudes toward weapons of mass destruction, and political movements to control them. Also HIST 945bu.
[HSHM 636au,Technology and Society from the Industrial Revolution.]
HSHM 637au,Race and Medicine in America, 1800–2000. Susan Lederer.
T 1.30–3.20
An examination of race and medicine in America, primarily but not exclusively focused on African Americans’ encounters with the health care system. Topics include slavery and health; doctors, immigrants, and epidemics; the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the use of minorities as research subjects; and race and genetic disease. Also AMST 883a, HIST 761a, WGSS 725a.
HSHM 670bu,Magic Bullets and Wonder Pills. Bruno Strasser.
TTh 11.35–12.25
This course explores the history of pharmaceutical drugs from the nineteenth century to the present. It covers the biographies of selected drugs (e.g., vaccines, vitamins, antibiotics, and steroids), the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, the modes of drug innovation, and broader social, political, and cultural issues. It shows how the development of drugs reflects changes in the relationships among academia, industry, and the state; the laboratory, the clinic, and the market; the physician, the patient, and the consumer. Also HIST 918bu.
[HSHM 675bu,A History of American Bodies.]
HSHM 676b, The Engineering and Ownership of Life. Daniel Kevles.
W 1.30–3.20
This seminar explores the historical development of intellectual property protection in living matter. Focusing on the United States in world context, it examines arrangements outside the patent system as well as within it. Topics include agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, and law. May be taken as a readings or research course. Also HIST 938b, LAW 21441.
HSHM 677au,Genetics, Reproduction, and Society. Daniel Kevles.
MW 11.35–12.25
A history of the interplay of modern biology with its social, economic, legal, and cultural context. Lecture topics include eugenics and sterilization, the Scopes trial, contraception and abortion, the new reproductive technologies, medical genetics, the human genome project, and human cloning. A two-hour graduate discussion section emphasizes the development of genetics, molecular biology, and biotechnology. Also HIST 939au.
[HSHM 678au,Alcohol and Other Drugs in American Culture.]
[HSHM 680bu,History of Chinese Science.]
HSHM 701a, Introduction to the History of Medicine and Public Health. Susan Lederer.
M 1.30–3.20
An examination of the variety of approaches to the social and cultural history of medicine and public health. Readings are drawn from recent literature in the field. Topics include the role of gender, class, ethnicity, race, region, and religion in the experience of health care and sickness; the intersection of lay and professional understandings of the body; and the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations. Also HIST 930a.
HSHM 702b, Introduction to the History of Science. Ole Molvig.
W 1.30–3.20
Study of secondary literature, recent and older, in the history of the physical and life sciences from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Students acquire familiarity with the development of science in general and of its major branches, including its content, instruments and methods, and social-institutional settings, and an acquaintance with various approaches that historians have followed in interpreting these events. Also HIST 931b.
HSHM 710b, Methods for the Social Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine. Bruno Strasser.
T 1.30–3.20
Exploration of the methods and debates in the social studies of science, technology, and medicine. This course covers the history of the field and its current intellectual, social, and political positioning. It emphasizes the debates on constructivism and relativism, and provides critical tools to address the relationships among science, technology, medicine, and society. Also HIST 921b.
[HSHM 723b, Making the Modern Body.]
[HSHM 725a, History of Disease and Public Health in Western Societies.]
[HSHM 726b, Medicine, Public Health, and Colonialism, 1750–1950.]
HSHM 732a, Infection, Public Health, and the State. Frank Snowden.
Th 3.30–5.20
This course is a comparative examination of public health strategies adopted by Western nations since 1800 with regard to high-impact infectious diseases—cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, polio, and HIV/AIDS. The course begins with “plague regulations” and then explores such alternative policies as vaccination, the sanatorium, the sanitation idea, the regulation of prostitution, health education, and the reporting and tracing of cases. Attention is also given to state planning to confront the threat of bioterrorism and to the present emergency in sub-Saharan Africa of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. The class considers the strategies of the World Health Organization and of national governments to confront the crisis. This is a reading and discussion class, but it can be taken as a research seminar with the permission of the instructor. There are no prerequisites, and no prior knowledge is assumed. Also HIST 928a.
[HSHM 733a, The Grounding of Modern American Medicine.]
[HSHM 736a, Health Politics, Body Politics.]
HSHM 740a, The Cultures of American Medicine since 1800. John Harley Warner.
T 1.30–3.20
Reading and discussion of recent scholarly literature on medicine in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. Themes include the moral, social, political, aesthetic, and epistemological grounding of orthodox and alternative cultural authority; the role of the marketplace in shaping professional identities and patient expectations; gender, ethnicity, race, religion, class, and region in the construction and management of illness and in the production and circulation of medical beliefs; interplay between lay and professional understandings of the body; nationalism, citizenship, and colonialism; and representations of medical institutions, practitioners, and practices in visual media, including film. May be taken as a research seminar with permission of the instructor. Also AMST 884a, HIST 925a.
[HSHM 912a, Reading Seminar in the History of Disease and Public Health in America.]
[HSHM 913b, Reading Seminar in the History of Life Sciences.]
HSHM 914a or b, Research Tutorial I.
By arrangement with faculty.
HSHM 915a or b, Research Tutorial II.
By arrangement with faculty.
[HSHM 918b, Research Seminar in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences.]
HSHM 920a or b, Independent Reading.
By arrangement with faculty.
HSHM 930a or b, Independent Research.
By arrangement with faculty.
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